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

[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.