T. de Lauretis, Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities, in special issue, L. Duggan, Making It Perfectly Queer, in, J. DEmilio, Capitalism and Gay Identity, in, J. Ned Katz, The Invention of Heterosexuality,, G. Rubin, The Traffic in Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex, in, A. Fausto-Sterling, The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough,, A. Fausto-Sterling, The Five Sexes, Revisited,, S. Stryker, (De)Subjugated Knowledges: An Introduction to Transgender Studies, in. It accepts greater economic inequality and disfavors unionization. All rights reserved. Queer theorists . universalizing. Charlene Carruthers (figure 1.8) describes the Black queer feminist lens in this video. With marked tenderness, the contributors to Reading . Many express criticism that groups like the HRC have become representative voices of the LGBTQ+ community and are failing to represent its most vulnerable members. 2006). 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. Published by Duke University Press 1983 Queer and Now From the book Tendencies Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822381860-002 Cite this 2 You currently have no access to view or download this content. Like Rubin, Newton was writing before the 1990 birth of queer theory. Allen Synthesis Two: Thoughts on Place, Space, and Change, Birth in the Closet-Synthesis #3 (Hummel), Hummel Synthesis #2:Re-vising the Suburbs: A Tale of Whoa, Synthesis #1: Freakin at the Freakers Ball: Halloween in the Castro, a Love Story, #3 Henry David Hwangs Queer Diaspora in M. Butterfly. Eve Sedgwick, a literary theorist, continues the project of troubling both homosexuality and heterosexuality in her 1990 publicationEpistemology of the Closet, which is widely recognized as a foundational queer theory text (figure 1.2). Did Foucault want us to become nostalgic, or did he want us to learn from the past about better ways of doing things now? Right now, drag performers and the LGBTQIA+ community need our help," the posts' captions read along with a link to purchase the t-shirt the couple wears in the clip through Bacon's 501(c)3 . It accepts greater economic inequality and disfavors unionization. The text is a progression of the analysis in Sedgwicks previous work on homosocial relationships, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. I will begin my summary with the editors' conclusion, where they offer Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick as a final example of . Refers to the performance of femininity or masculinity, and is most frequently used to describe the performance of gender expressions that differ from those associated with the performers natal sex assignment. Personal web page Abstract Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's concept, the epistemology of the closet, is a foundational contribution to the field of queer theory. In an article for Afropunk, Growing Up Queer: A Brief Lesson on Hetero- and Homonormativity, Justin Allen talks about the social consequences of heteronormativity (https://afropunk.com/2013/03/growing-up-queer-a-brief-lesson-on-hetero-and-homonormativity/). same-sex marriage. In more practical terms, this means that the act of identifying homosexuality and homosexual life as other has subordinated it to and coerced it into navigating a world that has been organized to favor heterosexual individuals. For the final part of her article energetically titled A Crazy Little Thing Called Ressentiment, she argues against how the intellectual right, via the hackneyed populist semiotic of ressentiment (18), have attempted to trash and disavow the powerful energies of queerness (20). To assert that identities are sociocultural constructs assumes that in different times and places different meanings and values dominate and influence identity. [21] Importantly, for Butler, because gender must be constantly reperformed, it can be intentionally or unintentionally troubled, revealing it as an ongoing project with no origin. For Foucault, power does not repress a preexisting sexual identity; it provides the conditions needed for sexual identities to multiply. 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. What hopes do you have for the future of gender? [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). It works for legal protections for LGBTQ+ persons, such as promoting legislation to prevent discrimination and hate crimes. What are the similarities and differences between transgender studies and queer studies? Urvashi Vaid is a frequently cited attorney and leader of LGBTQ+ social justice movements. What issues and whose interests does the HRC most seem to represent? Constructionists see identity as a sociocultural construct that changes. 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. 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. I am curious to know what you understand the dominant cultural conception of what it means to be queer to be. [41] Even more, her vision of activism decenters queerness; she demands that multiple types of oppression, types that will not be experienced the same way or even at all by the entire LGBTQ+ community, must be acknowledged to imagine and enact a truly transformed, justice-oriented social world. In this book he coins crip theory to describe the intersection of disability, gender, and sexuality and an interdisciplinary approach to critical disability theory, which encompasses queer theory. A police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York City in 1969 ignited demonstrations. For queers invested in transformative justice-oriented politics, the assimilationiststrategies employed by liberal LGBTQ+ organizations typified by the HRC stand in the way of meaningful social change. Both activism and theory are historically and geographically contingent, tethered to time, space, and the material body in its specificity. In her introduction to the text, Sedgwick treats the topic of "homosexual panic" as a way of introducing the main themes of the book. [22] This is likely reminiscent of Fausto-Sterlings provocation that there are five discernible sexes. A View from the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation, by Tan Hoang Nguyen. The groups motto was, and remains, Silence = Death.[1] An offshoot of ACT UP, Queer Nation, was founded in 1990 to fight the escalating violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. It may not be redistributed or altered. If so, describe how, and if not, explain why that might be the case. In exchange, it prohibited the discrimination of closeted service persons. Although inclusion in these institutions is contingent, precarious, and not evenly distributed among all members of the LGBTQ+ community, these two shifts in policy secured access and rights for some LGBTQ+ personsspecifically, white middle-class gay men for whom marriage equality has often been a primary political concern. For instance, the social psychologist Suzanne Kessler was critical of Fausto-Sterlings attachment to reading genitals for the truth of sex, insisting that the performance of gender on the body rather than on genitalia was more often used to gender bodies. It is a starting point for first-year undergraduates (New York: Riverdale Avenue Books, 2014). In the mid-1970s, the French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault publishedThe History of Sexuality, which describes the origin of modern homosexual identity. In Gender Critical she addresses transphobic feminists (https://youtu.be/1pTPuoGjQsI). The Normalization of Queer Theory, by David Halperin. The types of advocacy discussed in this article have, I contend, marginalized critical queerness in favour of a normative, discursively limited framework of 'gay' or 'LGBT' rights. Queer Theory critically examines the way power works to institutionalize and legitimate certain forms and expressions of sexuality and gender while stigmatizing others. Because queer theory focuses on the interruption, disruption, and decentering of whiteness and on patriarchy, heteronormativity, homonormativity, and cisnormativity, this is a must read (New York: New York University Press, 2017). Sedgwick opens with some hard statistics on suicide rates, HIV/AIDS policy, homelessness rates, etc., that suggest that the world is hostile to queer people and concludes: "Seemingly, this society wants its children to know nothing; wants its queer children to conform or (and Other videos by the same essayist are at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNvsIonJdJ5E4EXMa65VYpA. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Vintage KANSAS Coliseum Sedgwick County Brass Buckle Limited Edition 1978 at the best online prices at eBay! This idea, along with Muozs intersectionaltheorization of oppression and social transformation, resonates with many other queer theorists.[39]. He interprets sexual histories through a queer lens that does not assume that identities and experiences are universal. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (Foreword), Nancy K. Miller (Editor), Carolyn G. Heilbrun (Editor) 4.09. Although this interpretationis certainly supported by the text, I wonder if it really captures the nuance of what Sedgwick is trying to do. The editors are scholars and authors of Jewish studies, queer theory, and religious studies (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003). Butler states that there is a difference between saying that gender is performed as opposed to saying gender is performative. Halberstam argues that female masculinity actually affords us a glimpse of how masculinity is constructed as masculinity.[24] In other words, women and especially lesbians who are masculine reveal masculinity as a construct, in much the same way that drag queen performances reveal femininity as a construct. In her introduction to the text, Sedgwick treats the topic of homosexual panic as a way of introducing the main themes of the book. Gender always reveals the preference to heterosexual because the social institution makes gendershow more content Has someone you know had their gender presentation challenged or censored? Her updated version of the classic My Gender Workbook (1997) is an accessible, humorous, and interactive introduction to contemporary gender theory, as well as the intersection of gender, sexuality, and power (New York: Routledge, 2013). This frequently cited essay challenges queer theorists to apply the theory to address the oppression, policing, and marginalization of people of color, the poor, and the colonized. The policy required gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons to remain closeted while in the military. L. Feinberg, Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come, in Stryker. This part in itself essentially functions for me as a de facto Queer Manifesto, one with which I frontload my rereading of the entire piece, so that I immediately feel the polemic force of Sedgwicks anti-PC-America argument. Tan Hoang Nguyen reassesses male effeminacy and how it is racialized in cinema, art, and pornography. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick was an American academician specializing in literary criticism and feminist analysis; she is known as one of the architects of queer theory. She suggests that the deviancy and abjection previously associated with gay and lesbian sexualities is redirected to brown Muslim bodies and instrumentalized to justify the war on terror. Carruthers states that unless we move the margins into the center, none of us will be free. What does she mean by that statement? This is our fight, and even if we are a small population, our fight is rooted in democratic values and human rights, the right to life and dignity. Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation (New York: Soft Skull Press, 2004) and Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? The universalizing view, in contrast, sees sexuality and sexual definition as important to everyone. He identifies major contributors to a canon of works that built up the theory. Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique, by Roderick A. Ferguson. Who are some of the key thinkers and activists who have contributed to these movements? A term introduced by Eve Sedgwick to describe the view of homosexuality as relevant only to homosexuals. By looking back at the text Queer Visibilities that largely focused on articulating some of the relationships between the urban and sexuality over a decade ago in Cape Town, this article suggests . [35] For instance,Dont Ask, Dont Tell, a policy of forced silence about sexuality for gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members instituted by the Bill Clinton administration in 1993, was repealed in 2011. She is an independent scholar and high school teacher. Also, Namaste talks about the book and the struggles of transgender people in society in an interview (http://newsocialist.org/old_mag/magazine/39/article04.html). intersectional. In a video in the InQueery series by them, Tyler Ford explains the history behind the word queer (https://youtu.be/UpE0u9Dx_24). [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. Taught by Alexis Lothian, In exploring the definition of the designation queer and the various interpretations of political concerns of this classification, she gives readers a glimpse into the lives of those who struggle daily with the issues we have spoken about in class. For Butler, gender is established as consistent and cohesive through its repeated performance. Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images. He writes, The future is queernesss domain. sex-gender system. Halberstam convincingly claims, Masculinity must not and cannot and should not reduce down to the male body and its effects.[25] Like many queer theorists engaging gender, Halberstam deemphasizes genitals, refocusing on gender expressions. However, whereas queer theory is sometimes guilty of the privileging of homosexual ways of differing from heterosexual norms, transgender studies challenges naturalized links between the material body, psychic structures, and gendered social roles. They know that the possession of one type of genital equipment by no means guarantees the naturally appropriate behavior.[20]. The conference proceedings were later collected in a 1991 special issue ofDifferences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies. Your email address will not be published. [12] For Sedgwick, the history of homosexuality is not a minority historyit is the history of modern Western culture. In the late 1990s, several critics took the opportunity to reflect on the relations between feminism, lesbian studies and queer theory. It is also a very autobiographical and personal essay. Sedgwick, Eve. (LogOut/ Get help and learn more about the design. While Claggart is tasked with the maintenance of order on the ship, it is these mutinies that add to Billys suspicion regarding Claggarts moral characterBillys first impression of Claggart is that he was impossible to read. Detailed in a text by the same name published in 1990, the phrase refers to the ways contemporary Western thought and culture is fundamentally shaped by the category of homo/heterosexuality. In Chapter 5, Sedgwick orients the reader toward the other side of the spectrum and focuses her reading of Prousts work on the two queer characters in the novel In Search of Lost Time. Winner of the Gustavus Myers Center / Study of Human Rights Outstanding Book Award, this book provides the first scholarly study of trans people. David Halperin traces the origin of the term queer theory to Teresa de Lauretis in 1990 in this 2003 article in the Journal of Homosexuality (volume 45, numbers 24; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8980528_The_Normalization_of_Queer_Theory). neoliberalism. The scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviors, and functions. A Black queer feminist activist and organizer. Beautiful Bottom, Beautiful Shame: Where Black Meets Queer, by Kathryn Bond Stockton. The key insight from this chapter is that the way in which Prousts narrator describes Charlus and Albertine as different in every relevant way except one: regardless of the suspicion surrounding Charluss true sex and Albertines sexuality, both figures are cast as inhabiting a feminine position relative to the world of the text as a whole. Jack Halberstam. It explains the problematic and complicated histories of library classification of queer texts and includes an excellent bibliography of queer theorists. Similar to Muoz and Carruthers, he argues that radical transformation is the only way forward for queers of color. Sexuality, Race and Space: Queer Literary and Cultural Theory, Week 3: Theorizing Queer through Transnational Women of Color Feminisms, Berlant and Warner Sex in Public (Shoemaker), Judith Butlers Critically Queer (Jacoby), Summary of The Introduction to Whats Queer About Queer Studies Now? Rodrguez is also author of Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces (New York: New York University Press, 2003). Transgender studies is an interdisciplinary field of knowledge production that, like queer theory, challenges discursive and institutional regimes of normativity. Work like this and work published by other trans scholars demonstrates the importance of thinking gender and sexuality queerly. ContraPoints is an irreverent video essayist who explores gender identity and queer theory while using her extensive background in academic philosophy. It seems to me that she is carving out a way to put everything on the table, to say, ok heres what were up against, heres what Im up against, heres what I can do, heres what I am doing, heres what we need to do, heres what we need fewer people to do, heres what people have always been doing. What connections between the two do you find? Published only a few years after Duggans work on homonormativity and neoliberalism, Jasbir PuarsTerrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times confirms that some queer subjects have been incorporated into U.S. national life as valued citizens. Queer theory is flexible enough to account for differences of race, class, gender, and nation, although it does not always do so. For Foucault, Sexuality must not be thought of as a kind of natural given which power tries to hold in check, or as an obscure domain which knowledge tries gradually to uncover. Geographer Michael Brown has criticized Sedgwick's 'closet' as a term for spatial metaphor. 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. "Queer and Now." Human Rights Campaign. This view sees homosexuals as a specific group of people, a minority, within a largely heterosexual world. "Queer and Now", Tendencies, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. The largest U.S.-based LGBTQ+ advocacy group. Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity, edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. However, naming the homosexual had unforeseen consequences. His bookDisidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics(1999) uses performance studies to investigate the performance, activism, and survival of queer people of color. Drawing on feminist scholarship and the work of Michel Foucault, Sedgwick uncovered purportedly hidden homoerotic subplots in writers like Charles Dickens, Henry James and Marcel Proust. What was Foucaults personal background, and how do you imagine it might have influenced his academic career? 1993. Judith Butler describes the social construction of gender, and the policing of gender, by social institutions in this video in the Big Think series. Emerging in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1950s, the movement was a concerted effort to demand equal rights for homosexuals. Both Rubins work and Fausto-Sterlings early work leave a nature-nurture binary in place and suggest that sex correlates with nature and gender correlates with nurture. Working from classic texts of European and American writers . [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. You could not be signed in. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.
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