Reclaimed identity terms retain traces of struggle rather than being cleansed of negativity

Evidence

Judith Butler (1993) makes the argument that what is important about terms such as “black” or “queer,” which have moved from a negative to a positive connotation, is that they retain the traces of the struggle to change within them. This may constitute an alternative strategy to “political correctness” which attempts to cleanse the language of all traces of negativity. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 397

Categorization

• XREF: Butler’s resignification argument parallels the strategy of rearticulation Hall applies to hybridity; both bear on the construction of identity categories relevant to Islamophobia readings. — connects to: The residual term in a binary opposition can become the powerful, privileged term — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 468; Counter-hegemony works by reattaching emptied signifiers to their original meanings. — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 367; Identity redefinition succeeds only where mobilization outpowers sedimented resistance. — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 106 (+1 more)