Queer theory: Difference between revisions

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> The term "queer theory" can have various meanings depending upon its usage, but has beenis broadly associated with the study and theorization of gender and sexual practices that exist outside of [[heterosexuality]], and which challenge [[Heteronormativity|the notion that heterosexual desireheterosexuality is "normal"]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Warner |first1=Michael |title=Fear of a queer planet: queer politics and social theory |date=2011 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |location=Minneapolis, Minnesota |isbn=978-0-8166-2334-1 |oclc=934391034 }}{{page needed|date=July 2022}}</ref> Following [[Social constructivism|social constructivist]] developments in [[sociology]], queer theorists are often critical of what they consider [[Essentialism|essentialist]] views of [[Human sexuality|sexuality]] and [[gender]]. Instead, they study those concepts as social and cultural phenomena, often through an analysis of the categories, [[gender binary|binaries]], and language in which they are said to be portrayed.

The term "Queer'" itself intentionally remains loosely defined in order to encompass the difficult-to-categorize spectrum of gender, sexuality and romantic attraction. Similarly, queer theory remains difficult to objectively define as academics from various disciplines have contributed varying understanding of the term.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Georgie |title=What is Queer Theory? |url=https://www.perlego.com/knowledge/study-guides/what-is-queer-theory/ |website=Perlego |publisher=Perlego |access-date=18 June 2024}}</ref> At its core, queer theory relates to queer people, their lived experience and how their lived experience is culturally or politically perceived., Specificallyspecifically referring to the marginalization of queer people. This thinking is then applied to various fields of thinking.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Yep |first=Gust |url=http://0-search.ebscohost.com.librarycat.risd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=799901&site=eds-live&scope=site |title=Queer Theory and Communication : From Disciplining Queers to Queering the Discipline(s) |date=2014 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-56023-276-6 |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |language=English}}</ref>{{quoteblockquote|Queer theory and politics necessarily celebrate transgression in the form of visible difference from norms. These 'Norms' are then exposed to be norms, not natures or inevitabilities. Gender and sexual identities are seen, in much of this work, to be demonstrably defiant definitions and configurations.|Jay Stewart<ref name="BergmanBarker">{{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Jay |editor1-last=Richards |editor1-first=Christina |editor2-last=Bouman |editor2-first=Walter Pierre |editor3-last=Barker |editor3-first=Meg-John |title=Genderqueer and Non-Binary Genders |date=2017 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-51052-5 |page=62 |url=https://transreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2019-03-17_5c8df4095641a_christina-richards-genderqueer-and-nonbinary-genders-11.pdf |chapter=Academic Theory |series=Critical and Applied Approaches in Sexuality, Gender and Identity |access-date=8 April 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926010649/https://transreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2019-03-17_5c8df4095641a_christina-richards-genderqueer-and-nonbinary-genders-11.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

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>

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>

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://journaldiscovery.equinoxpubucl.comac.uk/GL10066658/article1/view/11347Gray_Intersectionality%20language%20and%20queer%20lives.pdf|doi-access=free }}</ref> Therefore, the personal identities of intersectional people are inherently political.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Reed |first1=T. V. |title=The Art of Protest: Culture and activism from the civil rights movement to the streets of Seattle |date=2005 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |location=Minneapolis, Minnesota |isbn=978-1517906214 |pages=75–102}}</ref> Groups such as the [[Human Rights Campaign]] have previously employed this understanding in formal rights advocacy for Queer legal protection. However, Queer theorists and activists like Lisa Duggan have noted that such groups prioritize the voices of some groups over others by focusing on specific identities like "gay middle-class men" rather than complex and intersectional ones.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Duggan |first1=Lisa |editor1-last=Castronovo |editor1-first=Russ |editor2-last=Nelson |editor2-first=Dana D. |title=Materializing Democracy: Toward a Revitalized Cultural Politics |date=May 2002 |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham |isbn=978-0-8223-8390-1 |pages=175–193 |chapter=The New Homonormativity: The Sexual Politics of Neoliberalism}}</ref> They have emphasized the importance of intersectionality in Queer discourse and activism. New directions in Queer intersectionality include Jones' "euphorias" studies showing intersectional differences in diverse [[LGBTIQA+]] peoples' experiences of happiness.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Tiffany |title=Euphorias in Gender, Sex and Sexuality Variations: Positive Experiences |date=2023 |publisher=Palgrave |location=Cham |url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/61860/1/978-3-031-23756-0.pdf }}</ref> Specifically, Jones found that happiness was often used as a reward for performance of intersectional normativity; those who were lesbian and yet also cisgender and mothers were more likely to experience euphoric moments even in discriminatory settings. However, LGBTIQA+ people who had "[[Other (philosophy)|other]] othered" identities such as disabilities were less likely to report experiencing euphoria. Jones argues being euphorically Queer should not presume typical happiness narrative arcs and should make room for negativity; Queer diverse people will need to critique society and critique critique of society but can still be euphoric about being Queer and intersectional.

According to Adam Isaiah Green, a professor at the [[University of Toronto]], queer theory deniesmight be doing a disservice to the study of queer people for, among other reasons, unduly doing away with categories of sexuality and gender that had an explanatory role in their original context. He argues that for instance the lesbians documented in [[Cherry Grove, Fire Island: sixty years in America's first gay and lesbian town|Cherry Grove, Fire Island]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Newton |first=Esther |url=http://archive.org/details/cherrygrovefirei00newt |title=Cherry Grove, Fire Island : sixty years in America's first gay and lesbian town |date=1993 |publisher=Boston : Beacon Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8070-7926-3}}</ref> chose to identify specifically as either "socialLadies", urgency"Dykes" inor certain"Postfeminists" casesfor (positionsgenerational, ethnic and class reasons. While they have a shared sexuality, flattening their diversity of homosexualidentity, subjects)culture whileand appropriatingexpression thisto "socialthe lesbian urgencycommunity" inmight othersbe undue and hide the social contigencies that queer theory purports to foreground (positionsrace, ofclass, radicalizedethnicity, opponentsgender).<ref name="Green">{{Cite journal|language=English|last1=Green|first1=Adam Isaiah|title=Gay but not queer: Toward a post-queer study of sexuality|journal=Theory and Society|volume=31|number=4|date=2002|doi=10.1023/A:1020976902569|url=http://link.springer.com/10.1023/A:1020976902569 |access-date=2020-11-07|pages=521–545|s2cid=140739910 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

* [[Queer archaeology]]

* [[Queer of color critique]]

* [[Queer studies]]

* [[Queer theology]]

* {{Commons category-inline}}