Are you Banjee, Dykon, Hasbian, Wolfy, Frig, or Stone? Do you even know what those words mean? No? Then it’s time for you to learn the essential LGBT elements on The Queeridioic Table!
Kona Katranya and Jen Crothers created The Queeriodic Table (which currently has 112 different queer elements on it) as a way to spark discussion about LGBT culture and identity. They debuted it at an Out in Schools fundraiser during fall 2010 and then again at the Seattle Erotic Art Festival where they dressed in lab coats and had a “sexy teacher” assist them. They say a lot of people re-visited their display over the three-day exhibition asking questions and challenging their format. Some even cried while sharing stories about their own queer makeup.
Jen and Kona have found that initially people get drawn in on a superficial level, noticing that it’s colorful and clever: “But then they think. And then they have questions about what a particular element means. Why don’t we have X? Why is Y in that category? And so on. Big philosophical discussions can start in minutes.”
Because the table and the project are iterative and constantly evolving, just like the real periodic table, there are lots of opportunities for new ways to engage people. In Seattle Jen and Kona encouraged people to think about creating molecules of representation by combining individual elements…
While it’s cool to hear new terms like Fagzilla, Yestergay, and Zami (the Caribbean for black women who love one another), the only trans elements we found were Trans, Intersex, Two-Spirited and Gender Queer. And Bi elements? Bidyke, Heteroflexible, DownLow, and Bisexual. Do those combined with the others elements adequately encapsulate all of bi, trans, and multi-culti identity?
No, of course not. but Katranya and Crothers are certainly open to revising the table:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
On their website, people can submit “Reflective Descriptions” of what the individual elements mean to them. Their answers are then curated into the website.
Be warned though, all 112 elements appear on the actual poster but only 62 of them appear on their website’s front page.
Via BitchBlog
VaJeena
You forgot “Gender Fuck”, “Drag King”, and “Drag Queen”.
Jen Crothers
We’re not just open to revising the table, we’re actually doing it right now! The Queeriodic Table is an iterative project and will likely never be “finished”. We’re always open to feedback and we’ve received a lot about the way we’ve included gender in the table. So we’re going to do that better, with sincere apologies to those we’ve offended.
Version 3 will be launched in July at the Queer Arts Festival in Vancouver, Canada. We’re excited to also incorporate a lot more non-North American and English-language terms.
Think we missed something? Let us know!
Joe
Fagatron!
Ginasf
I think the chart is seriously trans-ignorant. Get off your ‘queerer than thou high horse,’ open your eyes and you’ll know that, by far, the worst murder rate is against trans women who have sex with men.
Before you try and be ha-ha clever with pegging people, you better try at least truly learning about them first, because this is a fail.
ChrisM
Why are so many of these slurs? On the site there are elements like Butt Pirate, Dyke, Fag, Fairy, Flamer, and many more. Is this supposed to be some sort of statement about homophobia, or is this just another case of dumb gays embracing homophobia?