Hey I have kind of a strange question. My straight friend fussed at me for using the word twink today and compared it to using the n-word. Is this one of those things where the word has moved into the realm of taboo or is it like when they get mad at us for using the word queer? (He doesnāt like when I call myself queer either it makes him uncomfortable) I figured you were the person to ask as a person who is very active in LGBT spaces if not I apologize
To paraphrase John Mulaney,Ā āYou know how I know it isnāt like the n-word? Because weāre saying the word twink, and weāre not even saying what the n-word is.āYour friend is free to not like the word twink or want it applied to him, especially since he is straight, but it is absolutely not the same as the n-word, what the fuck.
First of all, let me just say thatĀ
STRAIGHT PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE WEIGHING IN ON QUEER COMMUNITY TERMS.Ā
His discomfort with our community terms is his problem, not ours.Ā
Twink is, generally speaking, a neutral word, often used as a self-descriptor, and has decades of use both in the queer community and the tabletop gaming community.Ā āTwinkā in the RPG community refers to someone whose stats are min-maxed or optimized heavily, usually for combat; theyāre also calledĀ āmunchkins,ā andĀ ātwinkā is also a verb, as inĀ ācan you help me twink out my characterās sheet for knife fighting.āĀ
So, yeah, if you told someone in my particular cross-section of nerdy queerness that twink is like the n-word youād get laughed off our RPG Discord full of queers.Ā
lol, what. Like the n-word. And you know what? Your friend needs to get over YOU calling YOURSELF queer. Itās one thing for someone to not want to be called queer himself, especially since heās not and should keep his straight opinions to his straight self about things that arenāt his business, but your self-identifiers are yours and he needs to put on his big boy pants and deal with his discomfort rather than making you feel bad for using your self-descriptors used within your community which he is not a part of.
Thank You!!!Ā
My pleasure. <3
























