brown rat: a term for a queer person whose identity is tied to being from the hood, however that may be experienced by the user. can be used as a presentation term
black rat: a term for a queer person whose identity is tied to being white trash, however that may be experienced by the user. can be used as a presentation term
being 'from the hood' and 'white trash' are more or less self-identifiers. i can't tell you whether these fit you or not. i also can't stop you from using these terms if you're a middle class suburbanite, but due to their socioeconomic nature i ask that you consider who they're meant for before using them.
these terms are against bigotry and support disentangling such self-identifiers from it.
(also, the terms are based in american culture, but they're not exclusive to americans. i myself am not american but my lived experiences are similar enough to be contrasted to american experiences and as such i connect to them in this way.)
the colors don't have that much meaning because i mostly picked them based on vibes but if you're curious:
for brown rat i used the browns because, y'know, brown rat, but also as a nod to how hood culture is interwoven with Black culture, also also because they were giving hood vibes to me. the olive and khaki are reminiscent of sewage systems, because brown rats are also known as sewer rats, and sewers paint an urban, dingy image that i associate with the hood.
for black rat there isn't much to be said other than american flag colors because yeah and the off-white and grey to give off stained and dirty. y'know, a trashy look.
the rat motif was chosen because i wanted the terms to be based on animals and while i was trying to pick them i had the sewer thing in mind, and 'hood rat' also came up. i first thought of vultures for black rat, vultures are black, so it sounded good to me. black rats aren't as strongly associated as urban compared to brown rats, like white trash compared to those from the hood. it was important to me that both terms contrasted each other because both experiences are intertwined in my life, so i made them the same animal. rats are generally disliked animals, looked down upon, seen as dirty and inconvenient, and they are also seen around low-income housing areas.
IDs might be a bit off since i made the flags on my phone and i can't see the colors well on my monitor, sorry about that.
germansingergirl
tangentwithtanner
janainaart
titsay