Editorial: Someone Needs to Stop The Letter Q’s PR Team

By Siona Kirschner

At some point in very recent history, the letter Q decided it wanted a rebrand. Suddenly, social media (or at least my personal Instagram feed) was flooded with talk of how Q doesn’t belong next to normies like P, R, and S but rather next to the cool indie letters like Y, X, and V. Respectfully, this is untrue. A letter cannot claim an outsider aesthetic without committing to existing on the outskirts. Q, a letter known for works like queen, quilt, quote, quiz, question, etc. (I could go on for years) simply is not making the sacrifices I need to see in order to believe that a letter isn’t gunning for mainstream approval. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 95 common words start with Q. Sure, this shows a much smaller scope than a sparkly, sensational, sassy shero like S (1k common words), but it’s still quite a bit more common than a letter like X, which only has seven common words (x, xerox, xu, xenophobia, xi, xenophobic, and xs for anyone wondering; reminds me of a certain president). I won’t deny that Q is an uncommon letter (it only comes up 62 times in the document I keep all my Milking Cat articles in, while R comes up 2216 times and even X is featured 85 times), but this is mainly because other letters don’t want to include it as a collaborator on their words. Q needs to understand that not getting along with others and being codependent with your bestie is not what makes you an alternative icon, it probably actually means you’re cliquey (and need those closest to you to come second; not a single word starts with “uq”). Just because Scrabble says you’re worth ten points doesn’t make you fancy and doesn’t mean the rest of us agree (I personally also refuse to respect the very same Scrabble overlords who recently added “rouxes” to their game, but I digress). The very nature of this incognito publicity campaign goes against what the end-of-the-alphabet letters stand for, and is in itself a plea for attention from the masses. I personally stand against it, and I hope you will too.