Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Word of the Gay: "Kiki"

When butches and femmes ruled the lesbian bar scene, "kikis" was a derogatory term for those who didn't fit into one of those categories.

8 comments:

Renee said...

This is a new term to me. Is it still being used and do people consider it derogatory?

planet trans said...

radical and marginalized queerfolk sometimes refer to "mainstream" gay society in times of pain as the "kaki kool aid drinkers" and it is not intended as a complement.

Queers United said...

Renee - I don't think it is really used anymore.

Kelli - So has the word been appropriated by trans folks to mock the the notion of a 2 gender society, never heard trans ppl use the term kiki.

Laurie said...

Another word I haven't heard....

That chick would be cuter with brown
hair :)

TACKLE YOU HUGS!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I doubt kaki and kiki are synonymous

Anonymous said...

Appreciate your bringing it up as I was beginning to think I just imagined the term. That very cute girl in the pic looks awfully femme to me, though.

Queers United said...

anon i really did try my best to find someone in between, that girl is kinda femme but thats what i came up with lol

Anonymous said...

'Kiki' was a nickname my parents used for me, independently of each other (divorced and living in distant cities) during my fairly androgynous, genderblended, 1980s adolescence.

My mother used it as an epithet, my father as an endearment (often as "Kiki Dee"). She had fits when I wore skirts [and had sat me down with the dictionary definition of 'lesbian' when I was ten ... possibly as her coming out? What did I know? I was ten.]. He gave me his old shirts and milspec glasses frames to wear with said skirts and v. short spiky hair.

I only learned that "kiki" was an adjective, and what it means, this year while reading Stone Butch Blues. It helped explain a LOT about the attitudes toward gender and sexuality my parents formed as young adults in the 1950's.

(One Easter break during the height of the parental weird, three relatives came to me privately on separate occasions and told me 'it's okay to be bi'. Yes. Yes, it is.)

(anonymous for reasons of my parents' privacy)

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