He also questions the strategy of attempting to fight back against discrimination by "reclaiming" a word which was originally used in a pejorative sense.

"I'm sure bigots are ingenious enough that if the word `queer' is reclaimed they will find another to insult us," he says.

Others say the strategy is working. Sandi Dubowski '92 has no difficulty reeling off a list of once derogatory terms used to describe some gays and lesbians, from "salsa sisters" to the "S&M community." He says that he can't think of any word that would insult him--not now.

But no single term is approved by all.

"It's kind of strange because it depends on who uses it," says Virginia C. Ravenscroft '92. "A lot of people who are really against gay rights use the term and so that tends to make it unpleasant," she says.

Ravenscroft, who describes herself as a lesbian, says she likes the word "queer," opposes "homosexual," but on the whole, doesn't worry about it too much.

"I'm not as picky as I think some people are," she says.

Woman: Spell it with a Y

While gays, lesbians and bisexuals are attempting to reclaim former insults and turn them into symbols of pride, other groups are adopting new words--and even new spellings of existing words--to describe themselves.

Several women feel that they need to take the syllables "man" and "men" out of their name. Their solution? They spell "woman" w-o-m-y-n, using w-i-m-m-i-n for the plural form.

Dunster House residents Davida F. McDonald '92 and Bridget C. Asay '92 both make no secret of their preference for the alternate spelling.

"Please leave a message for these women--that's w-i-m-m-i-n to you!" proclaims their answering machine message.

"Everyday we are bombarded with images of the superior man, of the ruling man," McDonald says, "So we just take a step to knock down this image of the ruling man and just take it out of our word."

"We're trying to define women as separate," says Asay.

Both Asay and McDonald say they tell their friends and acquaintances about how they feel, but say that the spelling question is relatively minor, compared to the other issues facing women today.