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= Queer theory =
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Introduction
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Queer theory is a field of critical theory that emerged in the early
1990s out of the fields of queer studies and women's studies.
Heavily influenced by the work of Lauren Berlant, Leo Bersani, Judith
Butler, Lee Edelman, Jack Halberstam, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, queer
theory builds both upon feminist challenges to the idea that gender is
part of the essential self and upon gay/lesbian studies' close
examination of the socially constructed nature of sexual acts and
identities.
Whereas gay/lesbian studies focused its inquiries into natural and
unnatural behavior with respect to homosexual behavior, queer theory
expands its focus to encompass any kind of sexual activity or identity
that falls into normative and deviant categories.
Italian feminist and film theorist Teresa de Lauretis coined the term
'queer theory' for a conference she organized at the University of
California, Santa Cruz in 1990 and a special issue of 'Differences: A
Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies' she edited based on that
conference.
Through the context of heterosexuality being the origin and foundation
of society's heteronormative stability, the concept of queerness
focuses on, "mismatches between sex, gender and desire" Queerness has
been associated most prominently with bisexual, lesbian and gay
subjects, but its analytic framework also includes such topics as
cross-dressing, intersex bodies and identities, gender ambiguity and
gender-confirmation surgery. Queer theory holds that individual
sexuality is a fluid, fragmented, and dynamic collectivity of possible
sexualities and it may vary at different points during one�s life. Its
attempted debunking of stable (and correlated) sexes, genders, and
sexualities develops out of the specifically lesbian and gay reworking
of the post-structuralist figuring of identity as a constellation of
multiple and unstable positions.
Queer theory also examines the discourses of homosexuality developed
in the last century in order to place the "queer" into historical
context, deconstructing contemporary arguments both for and against
this latest terminology.
Overview
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Queer theory is derived largely from post-structuralist theory, and
deconstruction in particular. Queer theory would suggest that history
be a process of recognition. Starting in the 1970s, a range of
authors brought deconstructionist critical approaches to bear on
issues of sexual identity, and especially on that of
Heteronormativity, i.e. the normalizing practices and institutions
that privilege heterosexuality as fundamental in society and in turn
discriminate those outside this stem of power, and focused to a large
degree on non-heteronormative sexualities and sexual practices. In
"The Politics of Inside/Out" Fuss asserts that the concept of �coming
out� and being visible has been normalized while simultaneously
contributing to the disappearance of queerness. By declaring oneself
to be visible and �out�, one declares those who are not invisible.
The theory was also influenced by Anglo-American cultures in the
HIV/AIDS activism of the 1980s and contemporary feminism in the early
1990s.
Queer theory's overarching goal is to be sought out as a lens or tool
to deconstruct the existing monolithic ideals of social norms and
taxonomies. How did these norms come into being and why. The view is
that these notions and norms are rigid organizing categories that do
not sufficiently explain different attitudes, behaviors, or conditions
of individual experiences, analyzing the correlation between power
distribution and identification while understanding the multiple
facets of oppression and privilege. Feminist and queer theory are seen
as applicable concepts that provide a framework to explore these
issues rather than as an identity to those in the community. Queer is
an umbrella term for those not only deemed sexually deviant, but also
those who feel marginalized as a result of standard social
practices.<(Giffney, 2004).
The term 'queer theory' was introduced in 1990, with Eve Kosofsky
Sedgwick, Judith Butler, Adrienne Rich and Diana Fuss (all largely
following the work of Michel Foucault) among its foundational
proponents.
Annamarie Jagose wrote 'Queer Theory: An Introduction' in 1996. Queer
used to be a slang word for homosexuals and was used for homophobic
abuse. Recently, this term has been used as an umbrella term for a
coalition of sexual identities that are culturally marginalized, and
at other times, to create discourse surrounding the budding
theoretical model that primarily arose through more traditional
lesbian and gay studies. According to Jagose (1996), "Queer focuses on
mismatches between sex, gender and desire. For most, queer has been
prominently associated with those who identify as lesbian and gay.
Unknown to many, queer is in association with more than just gay and
lesbian, but also cross-dressing, hermaphroditism, gender ambiguity
and gender-corrective surgery."
In addition, it is important to understand that queer theory is not
predominantly about analyzing the binary of the homosexual and
heterosexual. There is an abundance of identities in which queer
theory not only recognizes but also breaks down in relation to other
contributing factors like race, class, religion, etc.
"Queer is a product of specific cultural and theoretical pressures
which increasingly structured debates (both within and outside the
academy) about questions of lesbian and gay identity," but now, with
the evolution of language, it is important to understand that the
terms �gay� and �lesbian� are static, Eurocentric labels that fail to
be universal when looking at a transnational scale. It is merely
reductive to view queer theory as a byname for Gay and Lesbian studies
when the two fields have stark differences.
The future of queer theory is rooted in the aspiration of the term
being utilized to reference and question all deviations from
normative, as well as serve as a foundation of interrogation of the
normative. The desires that queer theory is centered in do not
reference sexuality, however because the foundation of queer theory
lies in the assessment and analysis of what is deemed normative and
non-normative, sexuality intersects with the components that maintain
the fundamentals of queer theory.
Queer theorist Michael Warner attempts to provide a solid definition
of a concept that typically circumvents categorical definitions:
"Social reflection carried out in such a manner tends to be creative,
fragmentary, and defensive, and leaves us perpetually at a
disadvantage. And it is easy to be misled by the utopian claims
advanced in support of particular tactics. But the range and
seriousness of the problems that are continually raised by queer
practice indicate how much work remains to be done. Because the logic
of the sexual order is so deeply embedded by now in an indescribably
wide range of social institutions, and is embedded in the most
standard accounts of the world, queer struggles aim not just at
toleration or equal status but at challenging those institutions and
accounts. Similarly, queer theorist Cathy Cohen highlights the
limitations of a queer politics that attempts integration into
�dominant institutions and normative social relationships� in order to
centralize LGBTQ identity, and rather that it is necessary to affect
the societal values and legislations that result in these oppressive
institutions and relationships of power. The dawning realization that
themes of homophobia and heterosexism may be read in almost any
document of our culture means that we are only beginning to have an
idea of how widespread those institutions and accounts are".
Queer theory explores and contests the categorization of gender and
sexuality. If identities are not fixed, they cannot be categorized and
labeled, because identities consist of many varied components, so
categorization by one characteristic is incomplete, and there is an
interval between what a subject "does" (role-taking) and what a
subject "is" (the self). This opposition destabilizes identity
categories, which are designed to identify the "sexed subject" and
place individuals within a single restrictive sexual orientation.
History
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Rosemary Hennessy cites calls for "a critique of heterosexuality" in
the 1970s from lesbian feminists including the activist Charlotte
Bunch and the theorist Monique Wittig as precursors to queer theory.
However, "queer" marks both a continuity and a break with the notion
of gayness emerging from gay liberationist and lesbian feminist
models, such as Adrienne Rich's 'Compulsory Heterosexuality and
Lesbian Existence'. "Gay" vs. "queer" fueled debates (both within and
outside of academia) about LGBT identity. The independence of "queer"
from "gay" came from the alignment of gay ideals with assimilationism
and conservatism, while queer coincided with a radical approach.
Assimilationists saw nothing wrong with society; queer radicalism
aspires to achieve nothing in reference to the status quo because
societal acceptance is not essential because society is unacceptable.
There has been a long history of critical and anarchistic thinking
about sexual and gender relations across many cultures. Josiah Flynt
became one of the first sociologists to study homosexuality. Most
recently, in the late 1970s and 1980s, social constructionists
conceived of the sexual subject as a culturally dependent,
historically specific product. Before the phrase "queer theory" was
born, the term "Queer Nation" appeared on the cover of the short-lived
lesbian/gay quarterly 'Outlook' in the winter 1991 issues. Writers
Allan Berube and Jeffrey Escoffier drove home the point that Queer
Nation strove to embrace paradoxes in its political activism, and that
the activism was taking new form and revolving around the issue of
identity. Soon enough 'Outlook' and 'Queer Nation' stopped being
published, however, there was a mini-gay renaissance going on during
the 1980s and early 1990s. There were a number of significant
outbursts of lesbian/gay political/cultural activity. Out of this
emerged queer theory. Their work however did not arise out of the
blue. Teresa de Lauretis is credited with coining the phrase "queer
theory". It was at a working conference on lesbian and gay sexualities
that was held at the University of California, Santa Cruz in February
1990 that de Lauretis first made mention of the phrase. She later
introduced the phrase in a 1991 special issue of 'difference's': A
Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies', entitled "Queer Theory: Lesbian
and Gay Sexualities." Similar to the description Berube and Escoffier
used for Queer Nation, de Lauretis asserted that, "queer unsettles and
questions the genderedness of sexuality." Barely three years later,
she abandoned the phrase on the grounds that it had been taken over by
those mainstream forces and institutions it was coined to resist.
Judith Butler's 'Gender Trouble', Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's
'Epistemology of the Closet', and David Halperin's 'One Hundred Years
of Homosexuality' inspired other works. Teresa de Lauretis, Judith
Butler, and Eve Sedgwick arranged much of the conceptual base for the
emerging field in the 1990s. Along with other queer theorists, these
three outlined a political hermeneutics, which emphasized
representation. These scholars questioned whether people of varying
sexual orientations had the same political goals, and whether those in
the sexual minority felt that they could be represented along with
others of different sexualities and orientations. "While some critics
insist that queer theory is apolitical word-smithery, de Lauretis,
Butler, and Sedgwick take seriously the role that signs and symbols
play in shaping the meanings and possibilities of our culture at the
most basic level, including politics conventionally defined."
Queer theory has increasingly been applied not just to contemporary
sexualities and identities but also to practices and identities in
earlier time periods. Examination of Renaissance culture and
literature, for example, has generated significant scholarship in the
past 20 years.
Background concepts
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Queer theory is grounded in gender and sexuality. Due to this
association, a debate emerges as to whether sexual orientation is
natural or essential to the person, as an essentialist believes, or if
sexuality is a social construction and subject to change.
The essentialist feminists believed that genders "have an essential
nature (e.g. nurturing and caring versus being aggressive and
selfish), as opposed to differing by a variety of accidental or
contingent features brought about by social forces". Due to this
belief in the essential nature of a person, it is also natural to
assume that a person's sexual preference would be natural and
essential to a person's personality.
Social constructivism is a concept that proposes the realities we
produce and the meanings we create are a result of social interaction;
communicating and existing in a cultural context that conveys meaning
to us. Our world is a product of continuous �claims making, labelling
and other constitutive definitional processes�.
Furthermore, queer theorists have offered the argument that there is
no essential self at all, and that people exist not just as subjects
but also as objects of the social world. In this way, an identity is
not born but rather constructed through repeated performative actions
that are in turn informed by existing social constructions of gender.
By thus analyzing and understanding the ways in which gender is shared
and historically constituted, the production of gender can occur
differently and beyond a socially constructed binary upon which
heterosexuality depends.
Identity politics
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Queer theory was originally associated with radical gay politics of
ACT UP, OutRage! and other groups which embraced "queer" as an
identity label that pointed to a separatist, non-assimilationist
politics. Queer theory developed out of an examination of perceived
limitations in the traditional identity politics of recognition and
self-identity. In particular, queer theorists identified processes of
consolidation or stabilization around some other identity labels (e.g.
gay and lesbian); and construed queerness so as to resist this. Queer
theory attempts to maintain a critique more than define a specific
identity. These critiques are expressed through a whole range of
notions in subfields such as ecotechnics within technology studies.
Acknowledging the inevitable violence of identity politics, and having
no stake in its own ideology, queer is less an identity than a
critique of identity. However, it is in no position to imagine itself
outside the circuit of problems energized by identity politics.
Instead of defending itself against those criticisms that its
operations attract, queer allows those criticisms to shape its - for
now unimaginable - future directions. "The term," writes Butler, "will
be revised, dispelled, rendered obsolete to the extent that it yields
to the demands which resist the term precisely because of the
exclusions by which it is mobilized." The mobilization of queer
foregrounds the conditions of political representation, its intentions
and effects, its resistance to and recovery by the existing networks
of power.
The studies of Fuss anticipate queer theory. Fuss analyzes queer
theory while surpassing the concept of identity politics to assert the
nature in how to distinguish people who were not heterosexual from
people who are without asserting the positionally of the two from the
lens of a binary.
Eng, Halberstam and Esteban Munoz offer one of its latest incarnations
in the aptly titled "What is Queer about Queer studies now?". Using
Judith Butler's critique of sexual identity categories as a starting
point, they work around a "queer epistemology" that explicitly opposes
the sexual categories of Lesbian and Gay studies and lesbian and gay
identity politics. They insist that the field of normalization is not
limited to sexuality; social classifications such as gender, race and
nationality constituted by a "governing logic" require an
epistemological intervention through queer theory." "So, the
evolution of the queer begins with the problematization of sexual
identity categories in Fuss (1996) and extends outward to a more
general deconstruction of social ontology in contemporary queer
theory."
"Edelman goes from deconstruction of the subject to a deconstructive
psychoanalysis of the entire social order; the modern human fear of
mortality produces defensive attempts to "suture over the hole in the
Symbolic Order." According to him, constructions of "the homosexual"
are pitted against constructions of "The Child" in the modern West,
wherein the former symbolizes the inevitability of mortality (do not
procreate) and the latter an illusory continuity of the self with the
social order (survives mortality through one's offspring). The
constructs are animated by futuristic fantasy designed to evade
mortality."
"Fuss, Eng. et al and Edelman represent a distinct moment in the
development of queer theory. Whereas Fuss aims to discompose and
render inert the reigning classifications of sexual identity, Eng. et
al observe the extension of a deconstructive strategy to a wider field
of normalization, while Edelman�s work takes not only the specter of
"the homosexual", but the very notion of "society" as a manifestation
of psychological distress requiring composition."
Intersex and the role of biology
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Queer theorists focus on problems in classifying individuals as either
male or female, even on a strictly biological basis. For example, the
sex chromosomes (X and Y) may exist in atypical combinations (as in
Klinefelter syndrome [XXY]). This complicates the use of genotype as a
means to define exactly two distinct sexes. Intersex individuals may
for various biological reasons have sexual characteristics that the
dominant medical discourse regards as disordered.
Scientists who have written on the conceptual significance of intersex
individuals include Anne Fausto-Sterling, Katrina Karkazis, Rebecca
Jordan-Young, and Joan Roughgarden. While the medical literature
focuses increasingly on genetics of intersex traits, and even their
deselection, some scholars on the study of culture, such as Barbara
Rogoff, argue that the traditional distinction between biology and
culture as independent entities is overly simplistic, pointing to the
ways in which biology and culture interact with one another.
Intersex scholars and scientists who have written on intersex include
Morgan Holmes, Georgiann Davis, Iain Morland and Janik
Bastien-Charlebois, in each case focusing on more particular realities
of the intersex experience. In his essay 'What Can Queer Theory Do for
Intersex?' Morland contrasts queer "hedonic activism" with an
experience of post-surgical insensate intersex bodies to claim that
"queerness is characterized by the sensory interrelation of pleasure
and shame".
Disability Theory and queer theory
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In Robert McRuer's 'Crip Theory,' he mentions the intersection between
disability theory and queer theory and how they are aided by their own
association with each other and what is normal; for instance, the
connection between upholding an able-bodied identity and
heterosexuality. He argues that an able-bodied identity functions as
more of a subconscious mentality of normality than heterosexuality.
McRuer argues that there is a system that is established to
distinguish those who are able-bodied from those who have
disabilities; that distinction that was instituted the disability
concept. Following that same dynamic, the subjection of homosexuality
in relation to heterosexuality founded the basis of homosexuality.
McRuer emphasizes how the intersecting of queer theory and disability
theory would cultivate, �critically disabled spaces overlapping with
the critically queer spaces that activists and scholars have shaped
during recent decades, in which we can identify and challenge the
ongoing consolidation of heterosexual, able-bodied hegemony.� The
creation of Crip Theory by McRuer was not only built on neoliberism
but also critically engages with the fundamentality of the term
�disability� and the manner that it paradoxically operates. McRuer
asserts the nature of which that queer theory and disability theory
benefit each other. The functions of the concept of able-bodiedness is
utilized as an additional tool to strengthen and maintain the concept
of heterosexuality and heteronormativy.
HIV/AIDS and queer theory
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Much of queer theory developed out of a response to the AIDS crisis,
which promoted a renewal of radical activism, and the growing
homophobia brought about by public responses to AIDS. Queer theory
became occupied in part with what effects - put into circulation
around the AIDS epidemic - necessitated and nurtured new forms of
political organization, education and theorizing in "queer".
To examine the effects that HIV/AIDS has on queer theory is to look at
the ways in which the status of the subject or individual is treated
in the biomedical discourses that construct them.
# The shift, affected by safer sex education in emphasizing sexual
practices over sexual identities
# The persistent misrecognition of HIV/AIDS as a gay disease
# Homosexuality as a kind of fatality
# The coalition politics of much HIV/AIDS activism that rethinks
identity in terms of affinity rather than essence and therefore
includes not only lesbians and gay men but also bisexuals,
transsexuals, sex workers, people with AIDS, health workers, and
parents and friends of gays; the pressing recognition that discourse
is not a separate or second-order reality
# The constant emphasis on contestation in resisting dominant
depictions of HIV and AIDS and representing them otherwise. The
rethinking of traditional understandings of the workings of power in
cross-hatched struggles over epidemiology, scientific research, public
health and immigration policy
The material effects of AIDS contested many cultural assumptions about
identity, justice, desire and knowledge. One scholar claimed that AIDS
challenged the health and immunity of Western epistemology: "the
psychic presence of AIDS signifies a collapse of identity and
difference that refuses to be abjected from the systems of
self-knowledge." (p. 292) Thus queer theory and AIDS become
interconnected because each is articulated through a postmodernist
understanding of the death of the subject and both understand identity
as an ambivalent site.
Role of language
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:'For language use as associated with sexual identity, see Lavender
linguistics.'
Richard Norton suggests that queer language evolved from structures
and labels imposed by a mainstream culture.
Early discourse of queer theory involved leading theorists: Michel
Foucault, Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and others. This
discourse centered on the way that knowledge of sexuality was
structured through the use of language. Michel Foucault writes in "The
History of Sexuality", critiquing the idea of the �repressive
hypothesis� that supposes from the 17th to the mid-20th century, sex
was a private matter limited within a marriage between a husband and
wife, and discourses of sex have been otherwise prohibited and
repressed. As a result of this repression, people sought outlets to
release sexual feelings, building their own discourses of sex and thus
liberating themselves from the confines of a sexually repressive
society. Foucault argues that the �repressive hypothesis� is a
limiting attempt to connect open discourses of sex to personal
liberation. This sort of narrative which views discourses of sex as
revolutionary progress against a repressive system is dependent on the
assumption that people of the past were sexually repressed; however,
Foucault states that from the 17th to the mid-20th century the
"'repressive hypothesis"' was an illusion, rather a suppression of
western society's sexuality. In fact, discourse about sexuality
flourished during this time period. Foucault argues,
"Western man has been drawn for three centuries to the task of
telling everything concerning his sex;that since the classical age
there has been a constant optimization and increasing valorization of
the discourse on sex; and that this carefully analytical discourse was
meant to yield multiple effects of displacement,intensification,
reorientation and modification of desire itself. Not only were the
boundaries of what one could say about sex enlarged, and men compelled
to hear it said; but more important, discourse was connected to sex by
a complex organization with varying effects, by a deployment that
cannot be adequately explained merely by referring it to a law of
prohibition. A censorship of sex? There was installed rather an
apparatus for producing an ever greater quantity of discourse about
sex, capable of functioning and taking effect in its very economy."
Foucault says at this time there was a political, economic and
technical excitement to talk about sex. Sex became a call for
management procedures. It became a policing matter.
Heteronormativity was the main focus of discourse, where
heterosexuality was viewed as normal and any deviations, such as
homosexuality, as abnormal or "queer". Even before the founding of
"queer theory" the Modern Language Association (MLA) came together for
a convention in 1973 for the first formal gay-studies seminar due to
the rise of lesbian and gay writers and issues of gay and lesbian
textuality. The convention was entitled "Gay Literature: Teaching and
Research." In 1981, the MLA established the Division of Gay Studies in
Language and Literature.
Media and other creative works
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Many queer theorists have produced creative works that reflect
theoretical perspectives in a wide variety of media. For example,
science fiction authors such as Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler
feature many values and themes from queer theory in their work.
Patrick Califia's published fiction also draws heavily on concepts and
ideas from queer theory. Some lesbian feminist novels written in the
years immediately following Stonewall, such as 'Lover' by Bertha
Harris or 'Les Guérillères' by Monique Wittig, can be said to
anticipate the terms of later queer theory. Nuria Perpinya, a Catalan
literary theorist, wrote 'A good mistake', a novel about the awkward
homosexuality in a London genetic engineering lab, between a young
white man and a black scientist.
In film, the genre christened by B. Ruby Rich as New Queer Cinema in
1992 continues, as Queer Cinema, to draw heavily on the prevailing
critical climate of queer theory; a good early example of this is the
Jean Genet-inspired movie 'Poison' by the director Todd Haynes. In fan
fiction, the genre known as slash fiction rewrites straight or
nonsexual relationships to be gay, bisexual, and queer in a sort of
campy cultural appropriation. Ann Herendeen's 'Pride/Prejudice', for
example, narrates a steamy affair between Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley,
the mutually devoted heroes of Jane Austen's much-adapted novel. And
in music, some Queercore groups and zines could be said to reflect the
values of queer theory.
Queer theorists analyze texts and challenge the cultural notions of
"straight" ideology; that is, does "straight" imply heterosexuality as
normal or is everyone potentially gay? As Ryan states: "It is only the
laborious imprinting of heterosexual norms that cuts away those
potentials and manufactures heterosexuality as the dominant sexual
format." For example, Hollywood pursues the "straight" theme as being
the dominant theme to outline what masculine is. This is particularly
noticeable in gangster films, action films and westerns, which never
have "weak" (read: homosexual) men playing the heroes, with the recent
exception of the film 'Brokeback Mountain'. Queer theory looks at
destabilizing and shifting the boundaries of these cultural
constructions.
New Media artists have a long history of queer theory inspired works,
including cyberfeminism works, porn films like 'I.K.U.' which feature
transgender cyborg hunters and "Sharing is Sexy", an "open source porn
laboratory", using social software, creative commons licensing and
netporn to explore queer sexualities beyond the male/female binary.
Racism
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Within the LGBTQ community, there lies a distinguishing marker between
those who just identify as LGBTQ and those who identify with both an
oppressed race alongside being LGBTQ. In "Punks, Bulldaggers, and
Welfare Queens", Cathy Cohen critiques modern day queer politics,
arguing that lack of recognition of LGBTQ people who face other forms
of oppression results in many queers not being supported or
acknowledged by queer politics. Cohen states: "how do queer activists
understand and relate politically to those whose same-sex sexual
identities position them within the category of queer, but who hold
other identities based on class, race and/or gender categories". This
pinpoints the idea she is attempting to make in that the politics of
Queer do not encompass all of the Queer community but only those with
the most privilege within the group: primarily upper class, white
cisgender men. Since this is the case, how then, can a Person of Color
who is also LGBTQ-identifying feel welcomed, supported, and
represented if they are being cast aside? Cohen attempts to explain
this by stating: "'Unlike the early lesbian and gay movement, which
had both ideological and practical links to the left, black activism
and feminism, today's 'queer' politicos seem to operate in a
historical and ideological vacuum. 'Queer' activists focus on 'queer'
issues, and racism, sexual oppression and economic exploitation do not
qualify, despite the fact that the majority of 'queers' are people of
color, female or working class..." This lack of recognition is leaving
a hefty portion of the LGBTQ community unsupported in all of their
endeavors, and it primarily gives aid to those who are LGBTQ and
identify as white.
The concept was created out of the mentality that queerness equals
deviance. It strives to display the error in assuming that everyone
experiences one sole monolithic existence, which establishes the gay
white male experience to be central to all other experiences, and that
all other experiences derives from the gay white male experience. By
institutions establishing and reinforcing the concept that there is a
uniform experience that all people from one race endure, it maintains
an environment centered on white discourse within the queer community
that establishes a �false intimacy.� That false intimacy fails to
provide queer youth of color with the support that is necessary to
recognize and analyze the intersectionality of their being.
As a response to this oppression, many scholars and queer theorists
use queer of color critique as a practice in both their academic work
and personal activism. Queer of color critique seeks to recognize the
intersectionality of oppressions and links different identity
categories together as a way to disidentify with "racialized
heteronormativity and heteropatriarchy".
Racialization of the body
===========================
Racism has long been embedded within queer theory since the creation
of the homosexual body and identity. Siobhan Somerville's "Scientific
Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body" discusses the
invention of homosexuality among the scientific community as coming at
about the same time as the reformulation of racial theories. According
to Somerville, when there were aggressive attempts to separate and
classify bodies as black or white, there was also the classification
of bodies as heterosexual or homosexual.
Havelock Ellis, an English physician, writer, progressive intellectual
and social reformer, suggested that homosexuality is not a crime, but
a congenital physiological abnormality; he believed that the "invert"
was visually distinguishable from the "normal" body through anatomical
markers (like the difference between male and female bodies).
This was the same as the ideas about the difference between racialized
bodies. There was the idea that black and white women's bodies held
major differences. Black women were often referred to as the "Bushman
race": having strongly muscled posteriors, highly textured hair and
other physical characteristics that were considered outside the
boundaries of 'normal' female bodies (based on white beauty
standards). W.H. Flower and James Murie constructed a site of racial
difference by marking the sexual and reproductive anatomy of the
African woman as "peculiar." The characteristics of African American
women were consistent with the medical characterizations of lesbians;
such as having an "unusually large clitoris." These supposed
distinguishing characteristics further separated not only heterosexual
people from queer people, but also white from black, and white
homosexual bodies from queer people of color.
Racialization of space
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Racism also exists within queer spaces. In "Out There: The Topography
of Race and Desire in the Global City" Martin Manalansan focuses on
the gay community in New York City, most specifically in Manhattan.
According to Manalansan, New York City is known to be a gay Mecca.
However, this portrayal, in focusing on Manhattan, centers white,
middle/upper class men. The gay community in New York is known to be
held exclusively in Manhattan, as this is the area that most people
who are not from New York City know. People who are outside of the
heart of Manhattan and the gay community there are, literally, "out
there". Those who are of different races, gender, or class occupy
different spaces and communities which seldom overlap.
Manalansan gives a detailed description of the topography of New York
City in order to show the actual physical and cultural barriers that
exists between the different boroughs and the gay communities that
exist there. Outside of Manhattan, the gay communities are divided by
cultural and racial barriers; the Latin, Asian, and Black gay
communities do not overlap and are also physically distanced from each
other. Space is inherently racialized. The racialized gay communities
and spaces in New York City only further alienate queer people of
color and make them less valued and validated in gay culture.
Carly Thompsen's article "In Plain(s) Sight: Rural LGBTQ Women and the
Politics of Visibility" also sheds light on racial issues within
visibility politics. In this piece, Thomsen analyzes the estrangement
between strategies and discourses of national lesbian and gay rights
organizations and the strategies and discourses of LGBTQ women in the
rural Midwest. She argues that it is crucial for rural queer studies
to critique contemporary visibility politics. Due to the overemphasis
of an essentially urban ethos, rural LBGTQ politics are usually
overshadowed and ignored. This undermining of rural identities in
LGBTQ politics is problematic for rural LGBTQ progress. She concludes
that rural queer studies must be weary of right-seeking approaches to
visibility politics because they indirectly allow the abjection of the
rural. From this, Thompsen reflects on how LBGTQ visibility politics
as a whole aid to the existence of, and even strengthen
metronormativity by showing the dominance of urban communities over
rural communities in gaining prominence in LGBTQ movements.
Just as Thomsen argues against metronormative ideals of the global
city as always the most progressive, comfortable and inclusive space
for queer people. Emily Skidmore pushes back on metronormative
assumption in her article "Ralph Kerwineo's Queer Body: Narrating the
Scales of Social Membership in the Early 20th Century". Her work
outlines the life of Ralph Kerwineo, a person born as a black woman,
who moves from Chicago to early 20th century Milwaukee and passed as a
Hispanic man in the then small town experiencing large influxes of
immigrants. Skidmore analyzed newspaper stories of Kerwineo when his
ex-girlfriend publicly accused him of being a woman. She found that
articles from local papers in Milwaukee were more accepting of
Kerwineo's gender identity regardless of his racial identity
(throughout the media outburst he variably identified as white, Latin,
black and Native American) whereas national papers immediately jumped
to accusations of Kerwineo's perversion and guilt. While Milwaukee
papers empathized with him, emphasizing that he was always an
upstanding member of society, and creating stories of women of color
just trying to survive in a difficult situation, national news sources
pathologized Kerwineo, linking racial, sexual, and gender deviance to
paint a picture of incontestable guilt. Skidmore uses this example to
show that queer people have found acceptance and community in places
other than global cities, showing that the specific social and racial
dynamics of Milwaukee at that time provided a safer environment for
Kerwineo. Thus, despite metronormative assumptions of national, or
larger urban, spaces as queer utopias, their discourses around queer
bodies can in fact be more intolerant of people with non-normative
gender, sexual, and racial identities than other places.
Racialization outside the United States
=========================================
Israel, in attempts to brand itself as a gay mecca, has been accused
of pinkwashing. This is the main idea of the article: "Israel's Gay
Propaganda War", written by Jasbir Puar, in which she highlights the
hypocrisy of the Israeli state in branding itself as a gay mecca,
attempting to show how progressive the state is despite its
dehumanizing acts against the Palestinian people. In the midst of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel has been accused of many
violations of human rights against the Palestinian people, and has
received an international reputation for being an imperial aggressor.
Their response to this was to proclaim to the international community
that they are more developed and essentially say: "Israel is
civilised, Palestinians are barbaric, homophobic, uncivilised,
suicide-bombing fanatics. It produces Israel as the only gay-friendly
country in an otherwise hostile region." What this entails is Israel
is essentially oppressing Palestinians further through their use of
gay-friendly propaganda, which also hides its own problems as state
dealing with homophobia as well. What Puar tries to argue is that
Israel uses this branding as a method to further justify their
treatment of the Palestinian people, and she argues further that the
image being portrayed towards Palestinians de-legitimizes those who
identify as Queer who are Palestinian since Israel does not support
the LGBTQ groups in Palestine, nor does it acknowledge their
existence.
In "Queer Injuries: The Racial Politics of 'Homophobic Hate Crime' in
Germany", Jin Haritaworn calls attention to the tradeoffs between the
passing of Anti-Hate Crime legislation. In this piece, Haritaworn
examines the problems with hate crime legislation in Germany and how
racist views are still manifested in anti-hate crime laws and have
racial ramifications. The move of LGBTQ activism into the judicial
sphere enables police and military systems to reinvent themselves as
the protector of minorities while police activity targeting racialized
populations is reaching new heights. Additionally, these newly
publicized and politicized subjectivities and embodiments still adhere
to a specific neoliberal ideology and fantasy. Incorporating criminal
justice analysis into sexual justice narratives, Haritaworn finds that
internationally, LGBTQ anti-hate legislation still marginalizes and
represses other minorities by forcing victim-perpetrator narratives
that target certain groups.
In "Imperialism within the Margins: Queer Representation and the
Politics of Culture in Southern Africa, William Spurlin speaks about
the sexual politics that have emerged out of Post-Apartheid South
Africa. Also, Spurlin look into textual and cutlural representation of
same sex desire outside of the Euro Americans axes of queer culture
and politics.
Emmanuel David researches transgender people�primarily trans women�in
call centers in the Philippines. In these spaces, David finds that
international corporations are integrating trans women into the
workforce in a way that both requires them to perform gender labor and
partake in the neoliberal capitalist system as members of the
periphery. In his article "Purple-Collar Labor: Transgender Workers
and Queer Value at Global Call Centers in the Philippines", David
outlines how transgender filipina call center workers are expected to
keep morale up by performing in fashion shows, staying happy and
joking around with their team members, all for the sake of worker
productivity. He shows that trans women who do not uphold these
standards or who are not extroverted in their work interactions are
not as accepted in their gender identity as the trans women workers
who are openly flamboyant and funny. This research highlights a
portion of the queer community outside of the core, upper class,
white, male, US urban population and pushes back on assumptions of
'Out There' being a space of intolerance, danger and conformity, but
also highlights how queer bodies can be integrated into the global
capitalist system and normalized in a place many readers might not
expect.
Feminism
======================================================================
Queer and feminist theories, like other perspectives based on
socially-based identities and gender, tend to overlap. Both of these
theories are described as responses to the "essentializing" of gender
and sexual identities, which lead to the oppression of those who do
not conform to socially constructed gender norms. This highlights
their similarity in the view that gender-related identity is socially
constructed. There is thus an agreement that the oppression of women
and sexual minority groups can be challenged by way of a
self-constructive process that rejects the perceived inferiority of
this group within the social order. While queer and feminist theories
share several commonalities, this does not mean that they are easily
commensurable, with some thinkers citing that they could even be an
awkward pair.
One overlap of queer theory and feminist theory is through the
recognition and influence of Judith Butler and Butler's cultivation of
the relationship of gender and sexuality that has come to found the
basis of queer theory concerns. The analysis of society in relation
to sexuality and gender, is a display of dominance that shows the way
that biology is influenced by culture and society.
A key difference between the queer and feminist theories involves
their respective scope. Feminist theory is only concerned about the
issues affecting women and women empowerment while the subjects of
queer theory are diverse and include women, homosexuals, transsexuals,
and those considered deviants. Queer theory is also distinguished from
feminist theory in the sense that it asserts identity as a conceptual
category, serving as "a disciplinary apparatus that that pigeonholes
the fluidity of the self into a politically docile normativity." The
feminist position is that 'identity politics' is a political error
that occurs once a standpoint gets overemphasized or naturalized.
Criticism
======================================================================
Typically, critics of queer theory are concerned that the approach
obscures or glosses altogether the material conditions that underpin
discourse. Tim Edwards argues that queer theory extrapolates too
broadly from textual analysis in undertaking an examination of the
social.
Adam Green's critique is one approach to queer theory, that leans
towards a sociological stance on the issue of sexuality; primarily and
rather exclusively, focusing on gay or lesbian subjects. Green argues
that queer theory ignores the social and institutional conditions
within which lesbians and gays live. For example, queer theory
dismantles social contingency in some cases (homosexual subject
positions) while recuperating social contingency in others (racialized
subject positions). Thus, not all queer theoretical work is as
faithful to its deconstructionist roots. Reflecting on this issue,
Timothy Laurie suggests that "the desire to resist norms in some
contemporary queer scholarship can never be entirely reconciled with
an equally important challenge, that of producing both adequate and
dynamic descriptions of ordinary events".
Queer theory's commitment to deconstruction makes it nearly impossible
to speak of a "lesbian" or "gay" subject, since all social categories
are denaturalized and reduced to discourse. Thus, queer theory cannot
be a framework for examining selves or subjectivities�including those
that accrue by race and class�but rather, must restrict its analytic
focus to discourse. Hence, sociology and queer theory are regarded as
methodologically and epistemologically incommensurable frameworks by
critics such as Adam Isaiah Green. Thus Green writes that, in an
introductory section, Michael Warner (1990s) draws out the possibility
of queer theory as a kind of critical intervention in social theory
(radical deconstructionism); despite this, he weaves back and forth
between the reification and deconstruction of sexual identity. Green
argues that Warner begins the volume by invoking an ethnic identity
politics, solidified around a specific social cleavage and a
discussion of the importance of deconstructing notions of lesbian and
gay identities; but, despite its radical deconstructionism, it
constructs the queer subject or self in largely conventional terms: as
lesbian and gay people bound by homophobic institutions and practices.
So, one of the leading volumes of queer theory engages the subject via
conventional sociological epistemologies that conceive of subject
positions constituted through systems of stratification and organized
around shared experience and identity.
In other way, for Ian Barnard, any consideration of sexuality must
include inextricability with racialized subjectivities. Adam Green
argues that Barnard implicitly rejects the queer theoretical
conceptions of sexuality on the grounds that such work fails to
account for particularity of racialized sexualities. He reasons that
the failure arises because queer theorists are themselves white, and
therefore operate from the particularity of a white racial standpoint.
Barnard aspires to recuperate an analysis of race in queer theory,
proposing that the deconstructionist epistemology of queer theory can
be used to decompose a white queerness (first) in order to recover a
racialized queerness (second).
Thus, Adam Green argues that Barnard's attempt to bring social
contingency into queer theory violates the core epistemological
premise of queer theory; in fact, by proposing that queer theory
capture racialized subject positions, Barnard reinstates what it means
to be a person of colour. His critique of the white subject position
of queer theorists is itself a testimony to the stability of the
social order and the power of social categories to mark a particular
kind of experience, of subjectivity and, in turn, of queer author. He
backs down the road of a decidedly sociological analysis of subject
position and the self.
Finally, Jagose Green observes that Jagose aims toward an analysis of
social cleavages, including those accruing by race and ethnicity.
Thus, on the one, Jagose underscores the strong deconstructionist
epistemological premise of the term queer and queer theory more
generally. Yet, she goes on to analyze identities and sexualities
"inflected by heterosexuality, race, gender and ethnicity".
Thus Adam Green states that by advocating the incorporation of social
contingency in this way, Jagose offers neither the critical edge of
queer theory nor the clarity of standpoint theory. However, on the
topic of race, Jagose asserted that for a black lesbian, the thing of
utmost importance is her lesbianism, rather than her race. Many gays
and lesbians of color attacked this approach, accusing it of
re-inscribing an essentially white identity into the heart of gay or
lesbian identity (Jagose, 1996).
The criticism of queer theory can be divided in three main ideas:
* It has a failing itineration, the "subjectless critique" of queer
studies
* The unsustainable analysis of this failing self
* The methodological implication that scholars of sexuality end up
reiterating and consolidating social categories
Green's views suggest gay conservation and assimilation that derive
from a more traditional perspective. His concerns regarding the
potential loss of a critical edge by incorporating too much discourse
on nonsexual identities is valid, however, theorists like Ruth Goldman
and Cathy J. Cohen, think elsewise.
In Ruth Goldman's essay �Who Is That? Exploring Norms around
Sexuality, Race, and Class in Queer Theory," she examines how rhetoric
works to create a �normative discourse within queer theory� (169), and
how that rhetoric serves to limit our perception of queer. In stark
opposition to Green's critique, Goldman argues that in order to comply
with queer theories intent to challenge the normal, it must provide a
framework in which to challenge other oppressive norms that intersect
with sexuality (i.e. racism, misogyny, classism, etc.). By
acknowledging the intersection of multiple oppressions is to dismantle
a single-issue framework, and thus, creating a platform for a more
intensive analysis.
Theorist Cathy J. Cohen offers a complex critique in "Punks,
Bulldaggers and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer
Politics" that supports Goldman's ideology. Queerness, according to
Cohen, provides conceptualizations that break the traditional binary
visibility. Unlike single-identity-based frameworks�failing to serve
those with multi-oppressed identities�queerness has the potential to
unite these aspects of self to spark a more cohesive understanding of
oppression. Yet Cohen expresses concerns surrounding the dichotomy
between queer and heterosexual. This binary has created a misdirection
of dialogue surrounding power dynamics. Thus an undercomplicated
understanding of power has been sexually categorized: all
heterosexuals are characterized as privileged and all queers are
deemed as oppressed. As a result, queer politics have prioritized only
one factor, sexuality as the primary lens through which they structure
their action. Encouraging this method of thinking rejects others that
are in or in-between the margins. Cohen states that to fully grasp the
advantages of queer theory, ideals need to be further radicalized; as
well as, push an intersectional lens when analyzing issues.
Green argues that queer is itself an identity category that some
self-identified "queer theorists" and "queer activists" use to
consolidate a subject-position outside of the normalizing regimes of
gender and sexuality. These examples call into question the degree to
which identity categories need be thought of as negative, in the
evaluative sense of that term, as they underscore the self-determining
potentials of the care of the self - an idea advanced first by
Foucault in Volumes II and III of The History of Sexuality.
The role of queer theory, and specifically its replacement of
historical and sociological scholarship on lesbian and gay people's
lives with the theorising of lesbian and gay issues, and the
displacement of gay and lesbian studies by gender and queer studies,
has been criticised by activist and writer Larry Kramer. Kramer
reports on a book by Richard Godbeer, a professor of history and
gender studies at the University of Miami, called The Overflowing of
Friendship. Kramer criticizes Godbeer's account of 18th century
Colonial times. Kramer writes, "Godbeer is hell-bent on convincing us
that two men in Colonial America could have exceedingly obsessive and
passionate relationships (he called them, variously, 'sentimental,'
'loving,' 'romantic') . . . [men would] spend many a night in bed
together talking their hearts out, without the issue of sex arising in
any way." Kramer does not agree with this theory and believes that
the notion the same-sex sexual relationships and experiences existed.
Relatedly, educator and writer John D�Emilio argues that gay identity
has not always existed and the emergence of gay men and lesbian was
rather a later development associated with the spread of capitalism in
the 19th century. A capitalist system of free labor propagated in
society and the independent unit of the nuclear family no longer
became a necessary economical unit. As the family in turn took on a
new role as an emotional and affective unit and separated from the
world of work and production, the idea of sexuality separated from
that of procreation. Sexuality, no longer bound by the imperative of
reproduction, experienced a change and allowed people to think
differently about desire, thus creating conditions allowing for the
expression of homosexual behavior and the construction of a gay
identity.
Another criticism is that queer theory, in part because it typically
has recourse to a very technical jargon, is written by a narrow elite
for that narrow elite. It is therefore class biased and also, in
practice, only really known and referenced at universities and
colleges (Malinowitz, 1993). In addition, those in a position of
power, have access to modes of communication where they can express
their interpretation, definitions and descriptions of topics,
sometimes regardless of the accuracy. This persons of power are given
�privileged act of naming.� As a result, this can obscure the
perception of reality for those in institutionalized settings.
Academia often neglects works of theory by women or men of color. This
can be attributed to the fact that institutions have imposed standards
of critical evaluations for what is a work of theory and what is not.
These standards have led to appropriation of work that was deemed
unfit and have created a stark exclusion of people who can access the
material. This turns the mass public against the idea of understanding
theory; an important aspect in relation to understanding practice. The
institutionalization of queer theory has imposed a threat of taming
and domesticating critical energy.
An initial criticism on queer theory is that precisely "queer" does
not refer to any specific sexual status or gender object choice. For
example, Halperin (1995) allows that straight persons may be "queer,"
which some believe, robs gays and lesbians of the distinctiveness of
what causes them to be marginalized. It desexualizes identity, when
the issue is precisely about a sexual identity (Jagose, 1996). On the
other hand, Michael Warner argues that the objective of queer is to
challenge normalness not heterosexuality. This ties back into Cohen's
point about the power dichotomy. Straight persons can be oppressed for
behaviors that are seen as sexually deviant as well. One example is
the �welfare queen,� a woman of color who is marginalized for her
race, sexuality and gender�all identities which intersect to create
this kind of oppression.
The critique of queer theory is not limited to the US. Queer theory
was repeatedly criticized by the Vatican. Pope Francis spoke about
"ideological colonization" by which he meant that queer theory, and
more broadly critical gender studies, threatens traditional family and
fertile heterosexuality. France was one of the first countries where
this claim became widespread when catholic movements marched in the
streets of Paris against the bill on gay marriage and adoption. Bruno
Perreau in [
http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=27481 Queer Theory: The
French Response] has shown that this fear has deep historical roots
in France. He argues that the rejection of queer theory expresses
anxieties about national identity and minority politics. Minority
groups could betray the nation and prefer transnational identities.
Perreau maintains that queer theory shows that being part of a group
requires the ability to critique one's own belonging. This is largely
unbearable to reactionary movements, Perreau argues, all the more
because queer theory is ironically largely based on French theory.
See also
======================================================================
*Essentialism
* Gender and Sexual Diversity
*Gender role
*Performative interval
*Performativity
*Post-feminism
*Postmodern feminism
*Social constructionism
*Third-wave feminism
*Pink capitalism
Further reading
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External links
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* [
http://www.trikster.net Trikster - Nordic Queer Journal]
License
=========
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License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_theory
