Eine Studie zeigt, dass wiedergewonnene Hassreden nach hinten losgehen, indem sie Zuhörer desensibilisieren. Das Anhören reklamierter homophober Äußerungen kann tatsächlich unbeabsichtigten Schaden anrichten. Der Kontakt mit wiedergewonnenen Schimpfwörtern macht manche heterosexuelle Zuhörer desensibilisiert gegenüber üblicher Hassrede und verschlechtert die Stimmung schwuler Menschen.
Reclaimed hate speech backfires by desensitizing listeners, study finds
22 Kommentare
**Reclaimed hate speech backfires by desensitizing listeners, study finds**
Reclaimed derogatory language is often viewed as an empowering tool for marginalized groups to take back control of harmful words. However, new research published in the [*European Journal of Social Psychology*](https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.70056) suggests that listening to reclaimed homophobic statements can actually cause unintended harm. The studies show that exposure to reclaimed slur words desensitizes some heterosexual listeners to standard hate speech and worsens the mood of gay individuals.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.70056
Let’s just be nice. Mmmkay?
I think the lack of other cues could also contribute to these results. Depending on how believable these audio samples were, I can see the drop in mood being just from the suspicion that someone was using the term in a hateful way even if they were told it it was at a pride parade.
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.
If exposure and reclamation of slurs really is empowering, I am not sure why you would expect to see that effect in one session. I imagine repetition over many days, weeks, or months is needed to get to that stage. Also I would expect the listener would need to become the speaker and feel socially rewarded for saying the slurs before it sinks in.
Everyone has felt that surge of good feeling when you are part of a new group or community and you say something that gets a laugh. That’s where the empowerment comes from, not from initial exposure to a new word or phrase, especially if it has some baggage. Building community and resilience are participatory actions.
I find it interesting how epithets often start out as words invented out of sensitivity. Like the word R3tarded, which was invented because the previous clinical words like moron, had been appropriated by people using it as a slur. So that word was invented as a more sensitive way of referring to morons.
Then of course once that word stuck, it just became the new epithet.
So it’s not the words that are causing the harm.
The buried lede is that the findings only apply to conservatives. Liberals are not affected.
Words are words. It’s the intent behind those words that matter. When you hear a rap song constantly saying the n-word you don’t think racism or slavery. But if you saw someone beating a black person up and saying it you would.
Queer is another example, it’s basically just means strange or odd. Some people embrace it, others resent it. One thing is certain though, you will never please everyone and I think society at large tries to do this and it always backfires.
People should accept that other people won’t always agree and shouldn’t try to force what they believe is „right“ onto others. Talking through our differences and earning respect is the solution I think. It feels like more and more that people are resorting to violence and cancel culture to avoid these conversations. But by doing so, you just radicalise people.
What about a certain other word
Can’t literally any word be used as a hate term?
Who cares? Like actually? Move on with your lives and treat each other with general kindness and grace. The end.
Is sensitivity the goal? I’ve always thought the goal was a society of adults that could understand context, and who possessed resilience such that the mention of a word would not be a thing to phase them. To that, I would question if it wouldn’t be a misguided goal to hide people from words, and train them psychologically to be affected by them. The specific issue studied here seems to look at only part of that picture, and in doing so might suggest a misleading conclusion.
Genuine question, I really don’t mean to be offensive when saying this, but why would desensitizing words be bad? It doesn’t read as a necessarily bad thing to me.
EDIT: either the title changed or I misread it, but I’m seeing “desensitizes some heterosexual listeners…” which I definitely agree is bad.
Yeah gay people who think it’s like black people reclaiming the N word are very stupid. Most straight people who hear you speak homophobically will have no idea you’re gay (especially online) unlike black people saying the n word where it’s obvious they’re black. So all it does is renormalise it for straight people hearing it
Yeah reclaiming words, it’s messy, and it also requires nuance which mostly people lack, or, everybody lacks in most areas
I still believe in reclaiming, but i definitely wish people would be more deliberate and careful with it and how they use the words. Incremental caution is needed so you’re not just slurring affected parties instead of using it tontake its teeth
As a gay person hearing other gays (and now queers and their friends) use f slurs casually I’ve seen how it excuses the same kind of mocking gay characteristics that was once obviously homophobic. Some people never had the life defining experiences and they don’t have the empathy. They think their liberation of a slur that doesn’t bother them is more important than those who are reasonably bothered by it which is gross.
Tldr I’m gay and not surprised, you don’t get to engage in something and not strengthen the pathways involved.
Being friends with an LGBT friend group that slings the f slur around a lot definitely did not feel like it was doing anything productive/beneficial
I hate hearing the f slur. I wish everyone would just drop it entirely
My kingdom for a single and I mean single sociolinguist to be on this project and not framed as a purely psychological experiment. This has been examined heavily in lavender linguistics and it’s so weird when people try to operationalize language without considering that social responses to language are always factors when trying to test language in a vacuum
Their experimental design fundamentally misunderstands what reclaiming a slur means.
Hearing the words supposedly coming from a pride event didn’t make the conservatives more homophobic, it just made them more comfortable giving their real opinion
If you give kids more colors and types of cars to play with, they will. The take away is that everything can ruin a gay persons mood, but especially children. Instead of restricting speech or banning words focus on better communication skills. This is worthless research that showed that kids are kids and that gays want acceptance but don’t care for the road that they have to walk.