What's in a name/word?

[Epigonos]

I remember when I was a kid I was terrified of being called a "faggot/fag". Now I use to term all the time referring to myself. I know most escorts are offended beyond words if they are referred to as a "whore". Yet I have known escorts who regularly refer to themselves as "whores". With those guys I refer to myself as a "whore monger" not a client. The same goes when referring to a new escort as "fresh meat". Some are offended beyond words and others could care less. As I've gotten older the less likely I am to be offended by these types of words. In the old Patrick Swayze film entitled "Road House" Swayze tell another character that he shouldn't be offended by being called a "cock sucker" because they are simply two nouns combined to elicit a specific response. Damn I've always loved that line. I simply refuse to allow others to rattle my cage and take control of my life by using these types of words in referring to me.

[rvwnsd]

Someone referred to me as "cocksucker" and I replied "Would you care for a demonstration?"

 

That said, I've heard the term "re-claiming" used to describe an escort calling themselves a "whore" or a gay man calling himself "faggot." Typically, it is OK for the person re-claiming the term to use it, but not someone who does not belong to the slurred group.

[InterestingGuy]

I think it’s funny when I’m talking to an “escort” I know and he uses self-deprecating humor. He always refers to himself as a “hooker” - he says things like “who’d have thought a hooker like me would care about using the right brand of soap”. It just strikes me as funny because he only says it to get a laugh.

[former lurker]

Someone referred to me as "cocksucker" and I replied "Would you care for a demonstration?"

 

That said, I've heard the term "re-claiming" used to describe an escort calling themselves a "whore" or a gay man calling himself "faggot." Typically, it is OK for the person re-claiming the term to use it, but not someone who does not belong to the slurred group.

 

There's a long history in civil rights movements of reclaiming and/or renaming. In concept, it's asserting control over how you are identified and taking control from others who would impose an identity. Hence, going from referring to African Americans as "nigger" or "colored" to Black and then African American. Same principle at work in LGBTQ movement.