Kathryn26638
In middle school and early high school, I didn’t understand this, either. Nowadays, it makes more sense, since I do the same kind of thing. Around my sophomore/junior year of high school, I realized I was a lesbian. It was this terrifying experience. What if people called me queer? What if they said I was a dyke? After a while, I came to understand something: I was queer, and I was a dyke, and … so what? The gay community, perhaps more than any besides the African-American community, uses language reclamation. What that means to me is that I will choose the power these words have. There is no longer any insult in the word “dyke” for me… at least, not generally. In fact, the word itself never bothers me … it’s the tone, and the impetus behind it. At the same time, these words are used within the community, often at full force. More than once I or someone I know has made a reference to so and so being a “fag” or a “big dyke.” Usually, these are merely reference points. (It saves going through a lot of qualifiers: “You know, the one with the bi-level hair cut and the leather jacket. She rides a motorcycle and lays pipe for a living. She looks kind of like Billy Ray Cyrus.” Read: the dyke.) Women seem to have done this to, with “bitch.” It’s all about choosing where the power lies.