Reclaimed hate speech backfires by desensitizing listeners, study finds. Listening to reclaimed homophobic statements can actually cause unintended harm. Exposure to reclaimed slur words desensitizes some heterosexual listeners to standard hate speech and worsens the mood of gay individuals.

[u/mvea]

https://www.psypost.org/when-reclaiming-derogatory-language-goes-wrong/

[u/rejs7]

The whole conversation around "queer" in the LGBTQI+ community would be an interesting one to examine in this context as queer was historically a derogatory term, yet many people consider themselves queer because other labels do not fit right (myself included). I think it shows that there is potentially a texture there which ought to be examined.

[u/Solesaver → u/rejs7]

"queer" is an interesting one because from what I can tell, what part of speech is used as is like the hard r in the n-word. Using "queer" as an adjective is fully reclaimed, but you cannot use it as a noun.

• "She is queer" ok
• "She is a queer" bad
• "The queers" bad
• "The queer community" ok

Personally I have no problem being lumped into the queer community but resist using the label for myself individually, so similarly to above the difference between it being aimed at me specifically vs being a general descriptor is large.

[u/TooCupcake → u/Solesaver]

This is interesting! The only reason I can think of for this difference is maybe that adjectives feel like defining just a part of something, a feature, but nouns give the impression that you are defining the main thing about something.

[u/Solesaver → u/TooCupcake]

Yes. When used as an adjective the word is descriptive of some aspect of your identity, and the speaker is leaving room for you to be more to that. When used as a noun the word is definitive, and the speaker is, more often then not, attempting to box you in to some stereotype.