On the off chance you've been living under a rock, social media app BlueSky has completely dominated the conversation over the last few weeks as massive numbers of users continue to flee the Elon Musk-led platform X (formerly Twitter) and give it up for a place that offers, for lack of a better term, much bluer skies than its competitors.
Since the election, the app, which started as an invite-only service in 2022 and was initially backed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, has gained upward of 20 million new users, and it is very much still counting.
One of the biggest reasons people, particularly gay men, have flocked to the platform for is its lack of censorship. Like X and unlike Instagram's attempt at competition with Threads, BlueSky allows users to post NSFW content, which helps OnlyFans creators and the general public share unfiltered content. To make things better, users are allowed to toggle on and off whether they want to show adult content, which makes it easier to keep that hidden when you're at work without having to worry as much about muting profiles, monitoring your scroll, or creating an entirely separate profile.
Whether you're new to the platform and, quite frankly, whether you're a member of the LGBTQ+ community or not, you've more than likely seen the terms "skeet," "skeeting," "reskeet," and "reskeeting" flying around. You may also see people using these terms in many different ways, and if you click on any of the hashtags associated, you'll very quickly find you'll have to enable your "safe" mode if you don't want people peeking over your shoulder and seeing a bunch of sex.
Keep reading to find out what reskeeting is, what the slang is for it, and what the true definition of "skeeting" actually is.
Diego Thomazini/Shutterstock
Firstly, with all jokes and connotations aside, and with specific regard to the platform BlueSky, a "skeet" or a "reskeet" is the app's officially unofficial replacement for the term "tweet" off of X. This also didn't just happen overnight, as the term has seen some evolution and is still, as of now, only the popularized term versus the official. The term is a combination of "sky" for the platform and "tweet" to replace Twitter, thus creating "skeet" for "sky tweet."
It's also worth noting that BlueSky's CEO, Jay Graber, addressed an early variation of the term in January 2023 over the suggested term "skoots." At the time, Graber responded by saying it sounded fun, but she feared it "might sound a bit dirty."
Gays were like, 'hold my White Claw.'
“Skoots” is fun, catchy, and easy to meme off, but we wonder if it’s like an inside joke that won’t translate to a wider audience. New people have to ask or infer what it is, because there’s no semantic relation to posts. And… it might sound a bit dirty!
— Jay 🦋 (@jay.bsky.team) January 31, 2023 at 11:31 PM
According to Know Your Meme and as is evidenced now, the conversation continued anyway.
The earliest example of "skeet" happened in March 2023 from the user @southside. Following that, the user @chatsworth officially ignited the trend on April 19, 2023, which led to an article on The Verge about how "they're 'skeets' now" and the need to page Lil Jon.
nah. bluesky users skeet. you heard it from Chatsworth first.
— Chatsworth (@chatsworth.bsky.social) April 19, 2023 at 2:05 PM
AJR_Photo/Shutterstock
This then begs the question, for those who don't know, about what "skeet" means, and why "skoot" might have sounded a little "too dirty" for the general population (who has, for all intents and purposes, very much embraced "skeet" after all.)
For what it's worth, especially after The Verge article, Graber also really tried to make it stop.
Guys, please don't let "skeets" stick The experiment in decentralized naming decisions has resulted in the worst possible term How about skoots? Can we bring back skoots? Bluesky OGs, help me out here, remember skoots?
— Jay 🦋 (@jay.bsky.team) April 27, 2023 at 7:45 PM
from BlueskySocial
In the slang world, skeeting is, for all intents and purposes, ejaculating, usually all over someone else and often on their face. It was popularized in the early 2000s in hip-hop music, largely through the song "Get Low" by Lil Jon and the East Side Boys. While both the explicit and edited variations of the song include "y'all skeet skeet" in the lyrics, the radio edit replaces all of the additional curse words included with that from the original to just repeat "y'all skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet."
While none of this has a direct correlation with the queer community, over time, as the word has gone on to embrace its NSFW meaning, a lot of the gays — especially those who have utilized BlueSky as a soft form of OnlyFans — have totally gotten on board.
This also doesn't mean that "skeeting" and "reskeeting" on the platform are exclusively utilized by the gays, but all I'm saying is to make sure you have safe mode enabled if you're trying to scroll that hashtag at work, and if you don't like any form of gay adult content, you'll want to avoid it at all costs.
Let me get this straight. Skeet also means cum and you think that's not awesome?
— eve6 (@eve6.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 11:53 AM
ima just start reskeeting gay shit from now on sorry for any flashbangs 🦭
— just ellie (@doejob.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 6:59 PM
reskeeting this for gay reasons
— StealthIntel (@stealthintel.bsky.social) November 15, 2024 at 9:36 AM
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“The internet’s hottest new club… Bluesky has everything… Skeeting and reskeeting, the menswear guy, thousands of gay men posting thirst traps… And just when you think the fun’s over, knock knock who’s there? It’s Dionne Warwick!”
— ish 🐋💍 | Free 🇵🇸 (@ishmaelsail.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 7:32 PM
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SolidMaks/Shutterstock
Believe it or not, all "dirtiness" aside, "skeeting" actually has a pretty boring definition -- it's a form of trapshooting where the shooter uses clay pigeons as targets that are shot into the air at height and speeds similar to the angles of flight taken by game birds to practice hunting.
A secondary definition for the word relates to poker, defining a hand that consists of a nine, five, two, and two other cards that have denominations below nine, but are not the same denomination themselves.
However, a third definition for the word popularized in the late 1800s means to "spit from the mouth," which is also a kink and fetish commonly explored in the queer community, and is the most closely connected definition to the popularized slang.
Dani D.G/Shutterstock
Much to the dismay of Graber, it very much seems as though skeets are here to stay -- with and without the double entendre and genuine meaning behind the platform.
To be fair, she may actually owe a lot of the platform's rapid growth to the queer community, who flocked to the app in droves following the election and have enjoyed the freedom the app provides to share whatever content you'd like. The censorship is an area where Threads lacked after people gave it a fair shot in 2023, but the added bonus on BlueSky about being able to toggle the adult content moderation on and off definitely adds some points to the up and comer.
Regardless, BlueSky has become a safe haven for people of the LGBTQ+ community who use it to escape the toxic associations of X and the people who run it. To "skeet" and to "reskeet" is just to be part of a platform shaped by its users to be irreverent, playful, and cheeky as they come.
