Goodbye Apple Fanboy. Hello Apple Superfan!

So I've officially decided to stop using the term Apple "Fanboy," in reference to myself and others. I'm going to test out Apple "Superfan," but I'm open to alternatives (feel free to offer suggestions in the comments). Apple Fanboy was, and is, most often used derisively by Apple haters, and always had homophobic connotations.

The implication was that if you were an Apple fan, you weren't a real man, you were kind of a sissy.  (I guess Windows and Android are more butch.)  Some Apple fans embraced the term in the way that some gays embraced the word queer, trying to turn the negativity into empowerment.  That's pretty much the way I used it.  Thankfully, society is starting to turn around and realize there's nothing wrong with being a "sissy," but it seems like we still have a long way to go before some people accept that it's okay to be an Apple fan.

Given all the rapid, and wonderful, changes in American culture in relation to issues of gender and sexuality, from acceptance of gay marriage and transgenders, to the push for more inclusion of women in the tech world, my feeling is this term feels increasingly exclusionary and dated.  I've decided, at least for me, it isn't a term worth trying to redeem.  So farewell, Apple Fanboy, hello Apple Superfan.