…you probably don’t know how it is used or its history.

I know a lot of people think it just means straight people and it’s a harmless jab at the privileged but it is not.

It is a biphobic, cissexist, racist and generally awful term.

This comic explains why pretty well.

As you can see “breeders” was chanted at bisexuals during London Pride this year and this is not an isolated incident, this is a regular experience at Pride around the world for many bisexuals. It is not only equating them as straight people (since this insult is used against straight people too) but also hypersexualises them for being “good breeders”, there’s the biphobia.

As the comic demonstrates this is especially hard for people who for whatever reason cannot have children, having problems “breeding”, this includes people who have misscarried, people who have recovered from illnesses where their reproductive parts have had to be removed, trans people who have undergone gender ressignment surgery and intersex people. It is essentially stripping people down to their reproductive capabilities and genitals, there’s your cissexism.

The word also has a very racist history, during the slave era “breeder” was often used to refer to black women who were designated for breeding new slaves and even now “welfare breeder” is used as a derogatory term to refer to, primarily, black single mothers. When this word is aimed at poc, especially black and latina women, it brings up a reminder of racism and being stripped of their autonomy to become livestock, there’s your racism.

It can also be very misogynistic when it is aimed at women since reducing women to reproductive value in general is a core value of misogyny.

Seriously don’t use this word, it sucks, it hurts people, let it die.