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{{Short description|Field of critical theory}}
{{LGBT sidebar}}'''Queer theory''' is a field of [[post-structuralist]] [[critical theory]]<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ranjan |first=Ritesh |date=July 2019 |title=QUEER THEORY: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ITS IMPLICATION IN ART HISTORICAL READINGS |journal=International Journal of Current Innovation Research and Studies |publisher=[[Elsevier]] |location=Maryland Heights, Missouri |volume=2 |issue=2 |url=http://www.ijciras.com/PublishedPaper/IJCIRAS1287.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Theory |url=https://www.sexualdiversity.org/edu/theory/ |website=sexualdiversity.org |date=January 2019 |quote=Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of queer studies and women's studies. |access-date=2023-08-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=What is Queer Theory? |url=https://libraryguides.fullerton.edu/c.php?g=1134908&p=8436083 |website=California State University, Fullerton Library |quote=Queer theory is a critical theory that examines and critiques society's definitions of gender and sexuality, with the goal of revealing the social and power structures at play in our everyday lives. |access-date=2023-08-25}}</ref> that emerged in the early 1990s out of [[queer studies]] (formerly often known as [[gay]] and [[lesbian]] studies) and [[women's studies]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chandler |first1=Daniel |last2=Munday |first2=Rod |title=A Dictionary of Media and Communication |date=1 January 2011 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford, England |isbn=978-0-19-956875-8 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199568758.001.0001/acref-9780199568758-e-2220 |chapter=queer theory }}</ref>
==History==
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==Definition==
The term "Queer
}}
In an influential essay, [[Michael Warner]] argued that [[queer]]ness is defined by what he called 'heteronormativity'; those ideas, [[narrative]]s and [[discourse]]s which suggest that heterosexuality is the default, preferred, or normal mode of sexual orientation. Warner stated that while many thinkers had been theorising sexuality from a non-heterosexual perspective for perhaps a century, queerness represented a distinctive contribution to social theory for precisely this reason. [[Lauren Berlant]] and Warner further developed these ideas in their seminal essay, "Sex in Public".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Berlant |first1=Lauren |last2=Warner |first2=Michael |title=Sex in Public |journal=Critical Inquiry |date=1998 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=547–566 |doi=10.1086/448884 |jstor=1344178 |s2cid=161701244 }}</ref> Critics such as [[Edward Carpenter]], [[Guy Hocquenghem]] and [[Jeffrey Weeks (sociologist)|Jeffrey Weeks]] had emphasised what they called the 'necessity of thinking about sexuality as a field of power, as a historical mode of personality, and as the site of an often critical utopian aim'.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Warner |first1=Michael |title=Fear of a queer planet: queer politics and social theory |date=1993 |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-2334-1 |oclc=28634756 }}{{page needed|date=July 2022}}</ref> Whereas the terms 'homosexual', 'gay' or 'lesbian' which they used signified particular identities with stable referents (i.e. to a certain cultural form, historical context, or political agenda whose meanings can be analysed sociologically), the word 'queer' is instead defined in relation to a range of practices, behaviours and issues that have meaning only in their shared contrast to categories which are alleged to be 'normal'. Such a focus highlights the indebtedness of queer theory to the concept of [[Normalization (sociology)|normalisation]] found in the [[Deviance (sociology)|sociology of deviance]], particularly through the work of Michel Foucault, who studied the normalisation of heterosexuality in his work ''[[The History of Sexuality]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Epstein |first1=Steven |title=A Queer Encounter: Sociology and the Study of Sexuality |journal=Sociological Theory |date=1994 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=188–202 |doi=10.2307/201864 |jstor=201864 }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite book |last1=Foucault |first1=Michel |translator-last=Hurley |translator-first=Robert |editor-last=Gros |editor-first=Frédéric |title=The history of sexuality |date=1978 |isbn=978-0-394-41775-2 |oclc=4004090 }}{{Page needed|date=December 2021}}</ref>
In ''[[The History of Sexuality]]'', Foucault argues that repressive structures in society police the discourse concerning sex and sexuality and are thus relegated in the private sphere.<ref name=":2" /> As a result, heterosexuality is normalized while homosexuality (or queerness) is stigmatized. Foucault then points out that this imposed secrecy has led to sexuality as a phenomenon that needs to be frequently confessed and examined.<ref name=":2" /> Foucault's work is particularly important to queer theory in that he describes sexuality as a phenomenon that "must not be thought of as a kind of natural given which power tries to hold in check" but rather "a historical construct."<ref name=":2" /> Judith Butler extends this idea of sexuality as a social construct to gender identity in ''[[Gender Trouble|Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity]]'', where they theorize that gender is not a biological reality but rather something that is performed through repeated actions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Butler |first=Judith |title=Gender trouble : feminism and the subversion of identity |date=1999 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-203-90275-0 |oclc=50506678}}</ref>
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==Intersectionality and queer theory==
The concept of queer theory has emerged from multiple avenues that challenge the definition of normality. However, institutions often tend to prioritize one marginalized group over others, resulting in limited social change. As activist [[Charlene Carruthers|Charlene A. Carruthers]] describes in her book ''Unapologetic'', it is important to imagine "alternative economics, alternative family structures, or something else entirely" from an imagination of cross-sectional communities – such as her stance as a Black queer feminist.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carruthers |first1=Charlene |title=Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements |date=2018 |publisher=Beacon Press |location=Boston, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0807019412 |page=10 |url=https://www.charlenecarruthers.com/unapologetic}}</ref> Imagination is a crucial aspect of queer theory. It is a tool for creating new worlds that are currently not viable for underrepresented or oppressed communities, prompting a transformative stance to current norms.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Muñoz |first1=Jose Esteban |title=Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity |date=2009 |publisher=[[NYU Press]] |location=New York City |isbn=978-0814757284}}</ref> An [[Intersectionality|intersectional]] approach decentralizes queer theory and thus shifts power to a more radical set of narratives, aligning with the definition of Queerness itself: challenging prominent, white, and heterosexual discourses.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Jennifer |title=Chapter 1: Thirty Years of Queer Theory |url=https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/introlgbtqstudies/chapter/thirty-years-of-queer-theory/#footnote-809-41 |website=Milne Library |publisher=Pressboks}}</ref>
According to critical theorist Daniel J. Gil De Lamadrid, intersectionality can be used to examine how queer identity is racialized as normatively white, and the intersectional stigma and resistance that comes from such [[racialization]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gil De Lamadrid |first1=Daniel |title=QueerCrit: The Intersection of Queerness and the Black-White Binary |journal=Academia |date=2023 |url=https://www.academia.edu/111596137
Intersectionality recognizes that complex identities and social categories form from "structured multiple oppression."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gray |first1=John |last2=Cooke |first2=Melanie |title=Intersectionality, Language and Queer Lives |journal=Gender and Language |date=2018 |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=401–415 |doi=10.1558/genl.37393 |s2cid=149945891 |url=https://
== Criticisms ==
According to Adam Isaiah Green, a professor at the [[University of Toronto]], queer theory
According to [[Joshua Gamson]], due to its engagement in social deconstruction, it is nearly impossible for queer theory to talk about a "lesbian" or "gay" subject, as all [[social categories]] are denaturalized and reduced to discourse.<ref>{{Citation|language=English|author1=Joshua Gamson|author2=N. Denzin|author3=Y. Lincoln|chapter=Sexualities, Queer Theory, and Qualitative Research|title= Handbook of Qualitative Research|publisher=Sage Publications|date=2000|edition=2nd}}.</ref> Thus, according to Adam I. Green, queer theory can only examine discourses and not subjectivities.<ref name="Green" />
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For some feminists, queer theory undermines [[feminism]] by blurring the boundaries between gendered social classes, which it explains as personal choices rather than consequences of [[social structure]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal |language=French|last1=Masson|first1=Sabine|title=Pour un regard féministe matérialiste sur le queer|journal=Mouvements|date=2002|volume=20 |issue=2 |page=44 |doi=10.3917/mouv.020.0044 |url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-mouvements-2002-2-page-44.htm}}</ref>
[[Bruno Perreau]], the Cynthia L. Reed Professor of French Studies at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], discusses various facets of the French response to queer theory, from the mobilization of activists and the seminars of scholars to the emergence of queer media and translations. Perreau sheds new light on events around [[gay marriage in France]], where opponents to the [[Law 2013-404|2013 law]] saw queer theory as a threat to French family. Perreau questions the return of French Theory to France from the standpoint of queer theory, thereby exploring the way France conceptualizes America. By examining mutual influences across the Atlantic, he seeks to reflect on changes in the idea of national identity in France and the United States, offering insight on recent attempts to theorize the notion of "community" in the wake of [[Maurice Blanchot]]'s work. Perreau offers in his book a theory of minority politics that considers an ongoing critique of norms as the foundation of citizenship, in which a feeling of belonging arises from regular reexamination of it.<ref>{{Cite book|language=English|last1=Perreau|first1=Bruno|title=Queer Theory, The French Response|location=Stanford, CA|publisher=[[Stanford University Press]]|date=2016|isbn=978-1-5036-0044-7|url=http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=27481}}</ref>
==Queer theory in online discourse==
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==See also==
* [[Queer archaeology]]
* [[Queer of color critique]]
* [[Queer
* [[Queer theology]]
==References==
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==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
[[Category:Queer theory| ]]
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