queen's vernacular

Definition

queen's vernacular rate

(Adult / Slang)

SYNONYMS: buff-talk; fag-lang; faglish; gay lingo; gay slang; gay slanguage; Gail; gaylese; gayspeak.
SEE ALSO: camp.

QUOTE: Julia P. Stanley and Susan J. Wolfe, Sexist Slang and the Gay Community. Are You One, Too? (1979): ' Such specialized languages quickly identify the members of a group to each other, provide them with a system for expressing concepts and values inherent and unique to the group, and exclude non-members. Our data indicate that the values perpetrated by "gay" slang are those of a heterosexist, patriarchal society in which homophobia is the "norm", that the terms that constitute the "gay" vocabulary serve the interests and expressive needs of males, and that most of the terms referred to as "gay" slang are not unique to gay contexts. In fact, most of the words are borrowed, meaning exchanged, from heterosexual male slang. There is a special sense, however, in which the so-called "gay" lexicon accurately reflects our paradoxal existence as outcasts: we have failed, as a group, to create our own culture, with values and mores representative of our lifestyles. Instead, those of us who are familiar with "gay" slang have internalized the assumptions of heterosexist society as givens in our own lives. One of the clearest examples of this internalization lies in the set of terms that reflect sexist attitudes toward women. As we will demonstrate, gays have incorporated terms that limit women to a specific role or status, accepting even those values that exclude gays.'