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The Allusionist

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A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

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The Allusionist

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Allusionist 157 Queerbaiting transcript

June 25, 2022 The Allusionist

LEIGH PFEFFER: I think people are a little too quick to ascribe the term ‘queerbaiting’ to anytime they see something that doesn't necessarily sit right with them on instinct. There's a tendency at this point to kind of use it as a synonym for bad representation. I think that there's a disconnect and a mismatch between what younger viewers nowadays are kind of expecting in queer representation versus what pop culture is providing. People are getting used to more representation. They want to see better representation. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about how do we get better representation? What do we call it when we have specific tropes that might lead to harmful stereotypes, instead of lumping everything under this term ‘queerbaiting’ - because if we muddy a term like that, it loses its meaning. We need to be intentional with the language we're using when we're discussing queer representation in media, because we're at a fragile point. We have to have the right language to criticise it.

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In transcript Tags history, words, language, lexicon, vocabulary, entertainment, culture, arts, etymology, Leigh Pfeffer, History Is Gay, pinkwashing, rainbow washing, representation, queer, LGBTQIA+, Hays code, queerbaiting, queer coding, race baiting, Disney villains, gender, Lavender Scare, Red Scare, fandom, online, slash, Star Trek, Kirk, Spock, Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, theurgy

Allusionist 156 Rainbow Washing transcript

June 10, 2022 The Allusionist

HZ: The British supermarket M&S made an LGBT sandwich, which is lettuce, guacamole bacon, and tomato.

MITRA KABOLI: That sounds good, actually. I would eat that.

HZ: They stopped at that point of the initialisms; they didn't go into the -QIA, which is supposed to be what, queso? What foodstuffs begin with an I?

MITRA KABOLI: Ummmm...

HZ: It gets difficult. I can see why they stopped.

MITRA KABOLI: ‘I’...

HZ: For the 'A' - they've got guacamole, so they used up the avocado already. Maybe apple? It's starting to get disgusting the further along the initialism you get.

MITRA KABOLI: There has to be a law where you must continue to make the sandwich, and as the acronym grows with letters, you must find something to put in there.

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In transcript Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary, Helen Zaltzman, history, whitewashing, whitewash, greenwashing, pinkwashing, redwashing, purplewashing, rainbow-washing, Pride, Pride flag, rainbows, breast cancer, Mitra Kaboli, Sarah Schulman, LGBTQIA+, commerce, capitalism, corporate, CIA, sandwiches, beer, Stonewall, autotelic
Allusionist Patreon
Featured
Allusionist 208: Ffff
Allusionist 208: Ffff
WhatsApp Image 2025-04-27 at 23.06.37.jpeg
several bits of news! (nothing bad)
queer playlist
Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
A Christmas Carollusionist
A Christmas Carollusionist
Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
Festivelusionists
Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Allusionist 203. Flyting
Allusionist 203. Flyting
Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
Allusionist 201: Singlish
Allusionist 201: Singlish
Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations
Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
Allusionist 199: 199 ideas that I hadn't made into podcasts yet
Allusionist 199: 199 ideas that I hadn't made into podcasts yet
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.