How It Impacts Me as a Queer Woman When Friends Call Each Other “Girl Friends” The Body Is Not An Apology
As I continue to settle into a queer identity, certain words and their meanings seem to do the exact opposite of settling in. They don’t sit still. Words I’ve never been comfortable using have become part of my regular vocabulary, and words that have never really affected me before suddenly have an unpleasant edge. Like other people, my relationship with words is very much a reflection of where I am in my life. I’ve noticed that every time a friend of mine uses the word “girl friend” to refer to a female friend, I inwardly cringe and get that weird twitch in my right eye that makes me look like I’m about two seconds from setting something on fire. For the rest of the sentence, I have difficulty listening, and all I can wonder is why they even chose to make that distinction between “friend” and “girl friend.” I’ve been accused of being nitpicky about this word because I’m too consumed with trying to figure out whether this person plays for my team or not. Theoretically speaking, fair ...