Reclaiming is one of the most fundamental practices for oppressed or marginalized communities. Looking at queer and feminist history, it is clear how deeply ingrained it is in our communities’ DNA. That moment in a community's life cycle, after infinite attempts at fitting in, when the cocoon has matured, and from it emerges an almost fantastical beast, declaring: This is me. Everything that was seen as too feminine, too masculine, everything that seemed odd, unusual or too sexual – all of it is me. It's like sewing wings from all the slurs and curse words we'd heard, like growing from all the times the world got too crowded for us, forcing us to shrivel up. That process by which individuals can reclaim words, phrases, or objects that were used against them, making them their own, is an important part of the essence of being queer. It’s an action that charges identity with its political meaning, fully committed to sustaining itself even at the price of a struggle.

Still, something about that terminology didn’t feel right. Something about the word’s semantic load felt a bit off. Reclaiming is understood to be a process affecting the social and political discourse, but this discourse is first of all made of individuals, seeking to regain what had been taken from them and used against them. It’s hard to explain how important it is to reclaim, not only what we once had, but everything that was never ours, but still so missing. Reclaiming doesn’t only imply action, but also demands an answer, one we owe to ourselves from the first day we felt different, from the first night we asked, with eyes wide open, “why?” In the act of reclaiming, we reply, we respond: Because. Because this is what’s right for us.