On queerness

Tess Mavrommati (she/her, they/them)

What does the word “queer“ mean? Well, for many it is an identity and for others a feature of the imagination. But what is the actual meaning of it?

This is the fun part of this word. It doesn’t really have an official symbolic meaning (yet). It is an umbrella term which has been used by the LGBTQIA+ community for years now, but the mainstream has only caught up to it recently. As a result it is common, even among the queer community, to have different meanings for this simple word. This word which was originally used merely to define something “peculiar“ or “extraordinary“ has now begun a wave of controversy and arguments.

There is a good portion of the population that has found peace in this label. It makes sense, no? It is a fluid word; one without strict definitions or qualifications. For some, this is the exact reason the word should not really be used; it is so undefined in its meaning that, in their opinion, it ends up being meaningless.

I would like to give another perspective in this debate. The perspective of a sociologist.

In social science, language has a very important meaning. Even natural scientists agree on the fact that language helps people develop their consciousness further; the more words a person learns, the more they can define their world. Anthropologists and others in relevant fields recognise how the ability of speech that humans have is an important factor in achieving the complex social structures present today. If they were unable to talk, they wouldn’t be able to come across all the abstract concepts which human society is based on. Our laws, commerce and social relationships (among a million other things) have taken the structure they have today due to language and its evolution. The more complex the language becomes, the more humanity progresses in its thinking.

And that is what ,,queer“ is essentially. It is a new word that meets the needs of our new social reality. Many try to find a biological connotation to the word in order to either cancel it or defend it, but I don’t believe there is one. Most things in our modern social reality are not related to biology or nature, yet we accept them as part of our reality, and we use them to progress our consciousness. This is also true for the concept ,,queer“.

But why would this word be needed now? What function in our human consciousness does it serve? I think the answer is simple: we have accepted that most of life is grey, and we need a word for that. I know that this may come as a surprise to some people, but we passed the 20th century. People have stopped defining themselves with the roles that are assigned to them at birth and instead they try to reassign their own role and meaning into life themselves.

After all, why should we accept a predestined role? Do people who support the ,,natural positions of genders“ etc. realize how boring this kind of life was? It was rather limiting and restricting for people who wished to discover the different flavours of life. It was rather needed at those times because it was something safe and people needed to feel secure because life was chaotic. This is a very serious possibility of why people tend to go to more traditional systems when chaotic periods come forth in society. It is a secure system that works in dire societal situations.

However, for a good portion of the planet this is not the case. We may have some struggles, but for the first time society is relatively secure and it allows us to think beyond survival. So, more people have come out as “queer“. Because why would you like to stay restricted in a life state that someone else before us has deemed as “the right one“? What if those who implemented these restrictions were stupid?

Failed attempts at humour aside, gender and sexuality without a spectrum can be both boring as well as traumatizing for those who don’t fit into those “pre-made boxes“. Heteronormative cisgender roles in particular tend to be suffocating. And yet, some people find solace in these heteronormative cisgender roles. And this is fine. It is perfectly fine if they also accept our grey, wonderful, liquidly queerness and our way of evolving our linguistic consciousness.