She's changing her name from Kitty to Karen

[sovay]

I record-scratched out of this article on the signaling of political vibes early on with the assertion:

And in the 2010s, in online forums, fans of the TV show "Steven Universe" gave the word "coded" its modern meaning, talking about how cartoon characters could be "coded" as gay.

What modern meaning? "Queer-coded" as a phrase as well as a concept goes back to the '90's off the top of my head, meaning it's almost certainly older and predates by decades no matter what the internet fandom of Steven Universe (2013–20), which may have popularized the academic usage but cannot have invented it. I'd have to check if it was part of Vito Russo's vocabulary, but Richard Barrios and Alexander Doty certainly used it. So did people I know. I am aware that shallow etymologies are least of the problems of the New York Times, but it is the sort of thing that I complain about on the internet because it is the sort of thing that will cause me to distrust the rest of the sourcing. More pleasant features of my evening included the first two episodes of Murderbot (2025–) which spatch and I watched in a rare moment of synchronization with pop culture. I am also enjoying Elleston Trevor's The Big Pick-Up (1955) even though every time one of its soldier characters swears, I keep thinking the printable profanity of the '50's can't hold a candle to Her Privates We (1929).

Comments

[scifirenegade]

???what???

(Russo used "coded references to [homosexuality] in The Celluloid Closet, bless OCR.)

Those books 👀

[sovay]

???what???

An instant speedbump! I was thrown from the moving argument!

(Russo used "coded references to [homosexuality] in The Celluloid Closet, bless OCR.)

Thank you! I thought he might have: I am confident that the term even predates him, thanks to the necessity of finding some way to talk about the sieve of the Production Code.

[edit] Bingo: "As over and over again we may notice in films, this homosexuality in code (because partly under wraps) is but another facet of life itself." Parker Tyler, Screening the Sexes: Homosexuality in Movies (1972). Ten minutes with Google Books and the Internet Archive, New York Times!

[scifirenegade]

There we go!

That book is even referenced in Wikipedia! They could've gone to Wikipedia to get actual sources!

[sovay]

That book is even referenced in Wikipedia! They could've gone to Wikipedia to get actual sources!

Willing to believe in even earlier attestations, that's just the one I pulled out of the Internet Archive. Also now I should read a lot more Parker Tyler.

Your icon, by the way, is magnificent.

[scifirenegade]

Of course!

And thank you :D

[minoanmiss]

Word.

[selkie]

Well, that was a brisk record-scratch indeed. To say nothing of to code-switch, which probably goes back to all them queer AFABs working the steckers in the Second World War.
Hardly worth mopping the nightmare off my face for the Gray Lady these days!
(I am glad you’re watching Murderbot together!)

[sovay]

Well, that was a brisk record-scratch indeed. To say nothing of to code-switch, which probably goes back to all them queer AFABs working the steckers in the Second World War.

Speaking of, I just found out that category includes Rose Valland.

Hardly worth mopping the nightmare off my face for the Gray Lady these days!

*hugs*

(I am glad you’re watching Murderbot together!)

(Thank you! I have feelings and opinions about it!)

[selkie]

I can't wait for you to see Sinners with Rush and report back as to whether I can see it.

"Heer, described as a stunning, blond polyglot who could help Valland decipher German documents, seems to have been Valland’s outgoing and charming counterpart."
Well, I'm not blond, but I am stunning. The Resistance needs extroverts and charmers and fixers this time around too.

[And German, of course!]

[sabotabby]

We should have been so much more careful when we let the internet read/watch The Celluloid Closet.

[sovay]

We should have been so much more careful when we let the internet read/watch The Celluloid Closet.

I only saw it in 2017! I had done my best to pay attention before then, though.

[troisoiseaux]

...I swear that Steven Universe wasn't even the first time internet fandom (read: Tumblr) talked about queer-coding...?

[sovay]

...I swear that Steven Universe wasn't even the first time internet fandom (read: Tumblr) talked about queer-coding...?

It wasn't! I'd seen it!

[ageorwizardry]

[salty] I'm not actually familiar with its usage in Steven Universe fandom, but based on how I've seen it used in fandoms since then, I'm willing to believe they may well have given it its "modern" meaning—in which people seem to use it to mean essentially just "this reminds me of something" rather than saying anything about what the creator intentionally put in. (No, nothing can be your-fave-pairing-coded that was created before the media your pairing is in. "This is so me coded!" No, it is not; the creator was not thinking about you.) I keep contemplating making a tumblr post on the theme of "that's not what 'coded' means!!"—but alas, I think this may be as unrecoverable as getting people to say "free rein" instead of "free reign."

[minoanmiss]

That would be an awesome educational Tumblr post but probably would bring you lots of stress.

[sovay]

I keep contemplating making a tumblr post on the theme of "that's not what 'coded' means!!"—but alas, I think this may be as unrecoverable as getting people to say "free rein" instead of "free reign."

Decimate!

I appreciate your comment since it had not occurred to me from the wording that the article could have meant "coded" in that very much looser sense of "gives me similar vibes to" (in which case it's still incorrect usage since the queer themes in Steven Universe were intentionally as textual as the network would let them!) and I extend great sympathies on linguistic drift that is stupid.

[asakiyume]

sounds like someone writing with confidence, and all the confidence does is reveal their ignorance...

[sovay]

sounds like someone writing with confidence, and all the confidence does is reveal their ignorance...

I went and read something else.

[asakiyume]

Always good to clear the palate

[minoanmiss]

Have you ever seen the comment, "One thing about growing older is having younger people vehemently tell you incorrect information about incidents you observed personally?" That's how I feel hearing of this.

[selkie]

I feel this in my fat little marrow.
I also have no rope for youngsters who say queers can't use queer because queer is a slur. No, queer is a neat single-word cipher for Mind Your Business.
(I also had an AFAB person under twenty-five once tell me I couldn't call myself a misandrist. Ha!)

[minoanmiss]

Kids these days! So conservative and prudish! Back in our day...

fistbump

[sovay]

I also have no rope for youngsters who say queers can't use queer because queer is a slur. No, queer is a neat single-word cipher for Mind Your Business.

I find it a genuinely useful term! And also as in fuck you.

[sovay]

Have you ever seen the comment, "One thing about growing older is having younger people vehemently tell you incorrect information about incidents you observed personally?" That's how I feel hearing of this.

*hugs*

I dislike the mangling of history. So much of it is being done perniciously, I don't need ordinary sloppiness on top!

[minoanmiss]

WORD!

[vass]

Thank you for sharing your annoyance: I now share it.

[sovay]

Thank you for sharing your annoyance: I now share it.

You're welcome: I'm sorry.

The Oxford English Dictionary weighs in with 1961

[jesse_the_k]

and from an anti-communist context

Oxford English Dictionary "coded" under Extended Uses

Sense III.6.

Of words, statements, etc.: expressing a meaning in a way that is indirect, deliberately euphemistic, or concealed from the uninitiated.

1961

This coded language conveys one definite sense and meaning to initiated Communists and sympathetic supporters. It carries an entirely different and deceptive meaning to the non-Communist world.

Manual for Survival (Church League Amer.) v. 55

https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4912503613

Sense III.7.

Shaped by any (unwritten) system of social or cultural conventions or customs; that has been assigned a category, meaning, or symbolism according to such a system. Frequently as the second element in compounds.

1967

In human communication people in social organization perform and interpret repertoires of coded behavior. American Behavioral Scientist April 8/1

https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1169659080

Thank you, Oxford English Dictionary!

[sovay]

(My physical copy of the OED is out of date by decades and more to the point in storage and I have not had access to the online version since leaving grad school, so I really appreciate your service.)

Both of these senses look in play in a discussion of queer-coding, since there are both societal conventions and in-group shorthands.

[coraline]

Good grief 🤦

[sovay]

Good grief

Ayup.