| Abstract [eng] |
Queer linguistics is a severely underresearched area in Lithuania and the Lithuanian language. Despite this, the processes occurring in the world-wide queer community are also relevant in the Lithuanian context. One of these processes – the reclamation of slur words – was chosen as the research topic for this paper. This paper aims to analyze the queer people’s position towards slur words and its main objectives are to analyze the position of queer people towards the usage of slurs by other queer people; to analyze the position of queer people towards the usage of slurs by cishet people; and to analyze which Lithuanian slurs words can be considered as reclaimed. The data for the analysis was comprised of 5 interviews with 5 queer people of different identities, but of similar age and education. After the interviews were transcribed, a thematic analysis of the interview data was conducted. The analysis revealed that, in general, queer people’s position towards slurs is a multifaceted one: one the one hand, it is neutral and slur words are perveived as a normal part of conversation when they are uttered by other queer people. Additionally, when it’s the queer community who uses these slurs, they gain a connotation of empowerment and pride. On the other hand, when slurs are used by cishet people, they mostly result in negative emotions of unsafety, anger or being upset. Furthermore, according to the participants of this research, cishet people should not be allowed to use slur words, as they are not theirs to reclaim. Finally, the Lithuanian language has a vast array of slur words used against the queer community, however, only a few ones – e.g. homoseksualistas:ė, pydaras:ė, lesbė (with their respective variations) – exhibit the traits of a typical slur word. The research reveals that, even though the slurs in Lithuanian are undergoing the process of reclamation, it is quite slow and some, less harsh slur words are reclaimed somewhat faster than the other, harsher ones. The findings of this research could be useful for linguists interested in hate speech and queer linguistics, sociologists, psychologists, queer activists, as well as people who work with the prevention and intervention of hate speech and hate crimes. |
