Queer, Gay: Labels Discussed

It isn't just the average person who finds social media a great way to access the diverse amount of information surrounding any given issue - activists are learning its benefit as well. That isn't to say interactive discussions and open forums only benefit people like Anonymous, who are hell bent on using cyberspace to take down rapists, child molesters, and famous cults, but even those of us who are forced to justify our own existence as identifying individuals. In a society that is, by default, structured to normalize and advocate a certain set of heteronormative and gender binarist principles, those of us who fall outside the norm are often left with no sense of ourselves, and no tools with which to build one. The interaction of issues and web outlets is changing that.

Labeling theory is a sociological concept that talks about the way individuals self-identify and behave in relationships with the words people classify them by. For example, calling a child 'bad' often might result in them really thinking they are bad, and performing bad behavior and considering it an integral part of their identity. The same is true about words like queer, gay, and other slurs directed at LGBTQIAP+ individuals. The online discussion format is often the first and most effective place these conversations take place. It's often the first time people encounter conversations about subversion, identity theory, and theory. Queer is a slur that many people are not comfortable applying to themselves, equating it to calling themselves any other number of negative terms, while some LGBTQIAP+ individuals enjoy that the idea of reclamation - taking a term and making it their own, and transforming the negative meaning into a positive one. Without the groundwork of labelin
g theory, this activism wouldn't make sense. Saying that the LGBTQIAP+ community is "the queer community" might be convenient for the lazy, but erases the identities of individuals who do not wish to be identified by a slur. This is where most of the discussion lies.

The accessibility to the web extends to almost everyone, with that accessibility growing every day. Libraries and public spaces are constantly adding more WiFi access points, and almost every device being sold is WiFi compatible. For the first time, LGBTQIAP+ people have the opportunity to engage with one another easily despite distance and identity or cultural differences. Within the context of the online discussion forum, it becomes difficult for anyone to totally monopolize a social discussion, and easier to participate in the community-wide discourse at an entry level. One of the first issues you might come up against is this divide between liberal and radical feminist ideals, where they overlap and diverge, and how those conversations extend to the idea of labeling.


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Kaelyn Kelly-Colon is an SEO content writer that has covered many topics, including labeling theory and LGBTQIAP+ issues discussed on social media sites such as http://www.tawkers.com