Trans folks talk a lot about how we conceptualize gender, but I don't think enough attention is paid to how gender is influenced by the culture we're brought up in. We generally think of gender as an innate identity independent of external factors, but the basic premise of what gender is varies widely between human cultures.
There's a lot of discourse both inside and outside of queer communities about microlabels. To many non-queer people, they represent an epidemic of excessive sensitivity and political correctness, but many queer folks also have misgivings about microlabels. This is my attempt at parsing out the good and bad of label culture.
The common messaging among neurotypical people is that a disorder is an abnormality, a disease. Most neurodivergent folks, however, perfer to think of their neurodivergence as natural variation of human developemnt. So what is a disorder, and what purpose do disorder labels serve if not to other neurodivergent folks?
Casual banter among queer folks complaining about systemic oppression is often interpreted by non-queer people as an attack. This kind of defensiveness is tone-deaf and derails the conversation, but it's indicative of a larger pattern of miscommunication between queer folks and allies who are theoretically on the same side.
This is a brief synopsis of what relationship anarchy is as I understand and practice it.
Many people are familiar with how slurs are sometimes reclaimed by the groups that they're used against, but many other kinds of symbols and narratives can be reappropriated as well. Reappropriation allows marginalized groups to disarm the people who would do us harm.
Most people understand on some surface level that representation is good, but most people who aren't part of a marginalized group don't fully understand why. It's a hard concept to grok if you haven't experienced the complete absense of representation of people like you.