Queerness is a structuring and educated mode of desiring that allows us to see and feel beyond the quagmire of the present.[38] For Muoz, conditions of everyday life are simply not viable for queer people of color, which prompts many to imagine a transformed world. It is also a very autobiographical and personal essay. homophile movement. If thats Sedgwicks underlyinggoal then we see how it evolves and bolsters her teaching, her projects, her understanding of her own health and the survival of others around her. Sedgwick ends her introduction on the note that , It is possible, and quite likely, that this portion of this article hit home for me because I am currently reading Homers. 12 Queer Patience: Sedgwick's Identity Narratives KARIN SELLBERG 189 13 Weaver's Handshake: The Aesthetics of Chronic Objects (Sedgwick, Emerson, James) MICHAEL D. SNEDIKER 203 . Academics and activists use the term to discuss attempts by LGBTQ+ persons to assimilate into institutions like marriage and the military that reproduce hierarchy and are associated with oppression. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for ***Queer Eye For The Straight Guy*** Music From CD at the best online prices at eBay! To assert that identities are sociocultural constructs assumes that in different times and places different meanings and values dominate and influence identity. At roughly the same time, the term queer theory began to circulate and quickly gained momentum within academic circles. Job discrimination, housing discrimination, street harassment, and access to identification documents are central to the politics of queers of color as well as women and lower-income members of the LGBTQ+ community. The 1970s and 1980s saw a rapid increase in lesbian and gay activism and scholarship. Continuing the analysis of the previous chapter, Victorian and Gothic literature marked another shift in what came to define the heterosexual/homosexual binary. In Gender Critical she addresses transphobic feminists (https://youtu.be/1pTPuoGjQsI). Queer Theory Revisited, by Michael Hames-Garca. An institutionalized way of thinking and speaking, which creates a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic. Following the Stonewall rebellion, lesbian and gay liberation groups started to fight for equal rights, and some scholars started to study the history and culture of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals. homonormativity. In the third chapter, Sedgwick underscores the way in which homophobic anxieties have come to be embedded at the heart of heterosexual identity during the end of the 1800s and through the work of Wilde and Nietzsche. [26] Transgender studies emerged in activist and academic circles around the same time as queer activism and theory. Ferguson demonstrates that predominantly white sociologists have used works by Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and other African American writers to construct theories about Black sexualities and therefore Black people (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003). Sedgwick opens this chapter by recounting the legal case of an eighth grade science teacher named Acanfora who was removed from his teaching position once the school board found out that he had been part of a pro-homosexual student group during his college years. It explains why she is at war against western civilization whichinsists on demonizing her and doing its damnedest to silence her, and why she is maddened by anti-PC movements and the politics of resentment fueled by anti-intellectualism of the right that is directed at academics. The play of her mind as it goes from Henry James to John Waters and Divine, from AIDS to Jane Austen and women's anal eroticism, is dazzling. Many queer theorists and activists are concerned that emphasizing single issues (marriage or the military) and centering LGBTQ+ politics on inclusion into existing institutions diminishes the radical potential of queer thought and action. With stunning foresight and conceptual power, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's work opened not only literature but also politics, society, and culture to broader investigations of power, sex . Icon Books is licensed under a, Figure 1.4 Icon Books is licensed under a, Figure 1.5. In fact, Judith Butler, who is often identified as an early and formative player in the creation of queer theory, cites both theorists as influential to her work on performativity. [16] Like Rubin, Fausto-Sterlings early provocation about sex categories sees sex as biological, natural, and unchangeable; it is raw material that culture transforms into gender. Who are some of the key thinkers and activists who have contributed to these movements? [30] Feinbergs 1993 publication,Stone Butch Blues, is a fictionalized personal account of negotiating New York City as a butch lesbian in the 1970s. The short introduction in theQueer Studies Readerstates that Sedgwicks purpose in the piece is toargue against the monolithic understandings of sexuality that presume sexual identity as a static identity category (3). She was 58. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Queer and Now serves as an introduction to the essay collection Tendencies, in which Butler revisits many of the themes in more detail, which might be why you find its structure a little frustrating though that may also just be Sedgwicks style! Emerging in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1950s, the movement was a concerted effort to demand equal rights for homosexuals. It then attaches sexual backwardness and violent homophobia to Islamic nations. Gender is definitionally built into homosexuality, but sexuality represents beyond gender and reproduction. The work discussed in this chapter dissipates some of the power that coheres around the idea of natural gender and sexuality, an idea that has often been used to mark queer genders and sexualities as unnatural and by extension inferior to heterosexuality. It begins by elaborating on distinctions between gay and lesbian studies and queer studies before identifying important trends in queer theory. sexology. About, Human Rights Campaign, accessed May 12, 2021, L. Duggan, The New Homonormativity: The Sexual Politics of Neoliberalism, in. An academic in the fields of performance studies, visual culture, queer theory, cultural studies, and critical theory. An institutionalized way of thinking and speaking, which creates a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic. Summary This chapter offers a Foucauldian genealogy of queer theory, which does not stabilize origins, but rather probes incommensurabilities within the field, centers the element of chance that allowed certain theories to become central, and allows for the formation of new roots to the side of those canonized for "founding" a field. Additionally, as of June 26, 2015, same-sex marriageis legal in the United States. References Judith ButlersGender Trouble, originally published in 1990, introduces the term performativity to suggest that gender identity is not natural and does not emanate from an essential truth that can be located on or in the body (figure 1.5). Is it the homo/heterosexual binary that Sedgwick engages in such depth in Axiomatic? A political ideology that espouses economic liberalism, such as trade liberalization and financial deregulation, and small government. She applies queer theory to her activism and advocacy, pursuing the notion that LGBTQ+ equality will be achieved once heteronormativity and homonormativity within the institutions of family, society, and government are interrupted, disrupted, and decentered to become more inclusive of racial, gender, and economic diversity (New York: Magnus Books, 2012). Over the course of her long career, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick became one of the most important voices in queer theory, and her calls for reparative criticism and reading practices grounded in affect and performance have transformed understandings of affect, intimacy, politics, and identity. [18] Most queer theoretical engagements with gender deprivilege the body, particularly genitals, as a site of truth by suggesting that the appearance of binary sexed bodies is actually an effect of binary gender discourse and, as discussed in the next section, binary performances of gender. Icon Books is licensed under a, Figure 1.7. Alongside this phenomenon, Sedgwick also provides the methodology that informs her study: deconstruction. In the second chapter, Sedgwick turns to the figure of Claggart, a gay policeman on a ship in Melvilles Billy Budd. She was one of the first people to publicly identify as transgender, then later as nonbinary and gender nonconforming. intersectional. I have deliberately chosen to identify the ironic spectator as gay rather than queer, based on Butler's (1993) theorization of critical queerness. Queer Theory and the Jewish Question, edited by Daniel Boyarin, Daniel Itzkovitz, and Ann Pellegrini. Chapter 6: Prejudice and Discrimination against LGBTQ+ People, Sean G. Massey; Sarah R. Young; and Ann Merriwether, Thomas Lawrence Long; Christine Rodriguez; Marianne Snyder; and Ryan J. Watson, Chapter 8: LGBTQ+ Relationships and Families, Jennifer Miller; Maddison Lauren Simmons; Robert Bittner; Mycroft M. Roske; Cathy Corder; and Olivia Wood, Chapter 12: A Practical Guide for LGBTQ+ Studies, Appendix A: Judith Butler Video Transcription, Appendix B: Lukas Avendao: Reflections from muxeidad, Appendix C: In Han Dynasty China, Bisexuality Was the Norm, Appendix D: What is a Fa'afafine Video Transcription, Appendix E: Queer Archaeology: Some Basics Video Transcription, Appendix G: Watch A Couple In Their 80s Get Married In Dallas County's First Same-Sex Ceremony Video Transcription, Appendix H: Care to the Trans- and Gender Non-Conforming Identified Patient Video Transcription. Butler responded to critique by arguing that, although discourse does not produce material sex differences, it organizes these differences, gives them meaning, and renders them legible.[23]. discourses. We cannot be and will not be denied that. In Chapter 4, Sedgwick begins with a meditation on the ways Victorian and Gothic literature negotiated the values around heterosexual masculinity and integrated those social norms into narrative. Full video transcript available in the appendix. This book won the Alan Bray Memorial Book Prize presented by the Gay Lesbian Queer Caucus of the Modern Language Association and was finalist for the 2015 Lambda Literary Foundation LGBT Studies Award. Halberstam (Shoemaker). Drag queens are often associated with gay culture. It is the name that can be given to a historical construct.[8] By rejecting the idea that something called sexuality exists in all of us, waiting to be liberated, Foucaults work challenged not only how sexuality was understood in popular and scholarly discourses but also how power was understood. Rodrguez deconstructs the archetype of the gesturing emotional Latina femme to discuss how gestures and types of bodies inform sexual pleasures and practices, as well as racialized sexual and gender identities (New York: New York University Press, 2014). Lisa Duggan coined the term homonormativity to describe the activist work of groups like the HRC.[36]. Rodrguez is also author of Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces (New York: New York University Press, 2003). I am reminded of lesbians in the 1950s and '60s hiding lesbian pulp fiction under their mattresses, skipping over the homophobia to marvel at the idea that women like them existed somewhere out there (Greenwich Village . This view sees homosexuals as a specific group of people, a minority, within a largely heterosexual world. Additionally, like Carruthers, Chambers-Letson decenters the queer sexual subject and queer theory to explore intersectional possibilities for speculative world making and practical activism. What are the differences between essentialist and constructionist theories of identity? Importantly, Chambers-Letson does not see art and performance as able to fulfill the promise of revolutionary transformative change; instead, it is a site where possible worlds are imagined, but they must still be materially enacted.[44]. The story of queer theorys emergence is entwined with queer activism. In the mid-1970s, the French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault publishedThe History of Sexuality, which describes the origin of modern homosexual identity. Like Rubin, Newton was writing before the 1990 birth of queer theory. Butler names institutional powers, like psychologists and psychiatrists, and informal practices, like bullying, that try to keep us in our place. Contemporary Philosophy, Critical Theory and Postmodern Thought Resources. The editors are scholars and authors of Jewish studies, queer theory, and religious studies (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003). "Universally cited as the text that ignited gay studies," according to Rolling Stone magazine, and as "in many ways the book that turned queer theory from a latent to a manifest discipline," the symposium features a series of short papers engaging with the text, its reception, and its relevance to the evolving field of queer studies. Malik Gaines expands on Butlers theory of performativity by depicting how artists, musicians, playwrights, and actors perform race, Black political ideas, and resistance politics to disrupt mainstream views of race, gender, and sexuality. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Class meets Monday-Thursday 3.30-5.40pm in McIlhenny 205. InCruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, Muoz explores the critical imagination, which he refers to as transformative thought that can prompt and shape social change. [13] It is a constructivist account of gender identity that connects the binary construction of gender (man or woman) to heterosexual kinship and by extension to womens oppression within heterosexual patriarchal cultures (figure 1.3). Drag queens are often associated with gay culture. So its a lot to take in! Here it is important to distinguish between sexual identities and sexual practices. She notes that although it became standard to refer to lesbiansandgays in the 1980s, the and obscured differences instead of revealing them. The marriage of two people of the same sex or gender in a civil or religious ceremony. The influential transgender activist Riki Wilchins wrote this classic work to make queer theory and gender theory accessible to a nonacademic audience. (LogOut/ Duggan and Puar are critical of activist initiatives that are based on inclusion into existing social institutions, because they see these institutions themselves as damaging. Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class, and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics, by Urvashi Vaid. Queer theory is flexible enough to account for differences of race, class, gender, and nation, although it does not always do so. The view that identity is a sociocultural construct that influences identity formation. The policy required gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons to remain closeted while in the military. The majority of entries will be based on literature and works of literary criticism I am currently reading for ENG 480: History of Western Literary Criticism, an English class I am taking at Michigan State University this fall.