Co-opting
derisive terms: something
Michel Foucault refers to as 'reverse discourse'.
Foucault argued: "homosexuality became a perversion but the discourse made possible the formation of a reverse discourse: homosexuality began to speak in its own behalf, to demand that its legitimacy or 'naturality' be acknowledged, often
in the same vocabulary, using the same categories by which it was medically disqualified".
(my italics)
This can be applied to any
oppressed group: it basically means co-opting the terms which the oppressors use, and making them into a source of strength, a base of
power from which to redress the inequality.
quote source: Michel Foucault,
Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977. Colin Gordon, Ed. New York: Pantheon, 1980.