A Queer Theory : Written By Richard Blanco

Gay sees herself as an intersection of the black, woman, and feminist communities, making her a hybrid of the three, giving her a distinct community to identify with as well as broader groups. She identifies as a woman and acknowledges all of the expectations and stereotypes that accompanies. On the other hand, her fundamental views on gender equality gives her the ability to empathize with the feminist community. Nevertheless, in every group of people, everyone is a distinct individual with a distinct number of characteristics, both physical and emotional, that sets them apart from the person next to them. As a woman of color, Gay has a list of additional concerns and interests that pertains to her specific experience that are not necessarily included throughout the entire group of feminists. Gay could be branched off into dozens of more sects and factions that pertain to specific

Perhaps, in the following essay I put a quart into a pint pot, because I intend to puzzle out, or rather, find and give a deeper insight into Walt Whitman's sexuality that is still a question on agenda. There are readers and critics who state that it is a shame to humble his poetry to this level, but I think that he was homosexual in his era the topic cannot be left untouched, because therefore this factor was very influential on his everyday life, thinking and hence on his poetry, too.

Most people do not see the way homosexual people are treated, especially in the early 1990’s when this poem was written. The writer uses the guidebook approach to illustrate the ignorance of people that he has to deal with regarding the dying of his brother, and how he recommends dealing with it. It must have been hard to refrain from getting enraged with those people and laying into them. That is where the guidance of his brother’s lover came into play.

First of all, the author, Essex Hemphill, is gay, which could be reflected onto the speaker as well. In the poem the speaker is accompanied by “unsuspecting aunts expecting to throw rice at me someday” (17-18). These two lines demonstrate that the speaker’s aunts will expect him to get married to a woman, but the speaker knows this will never be true. The aunts are completely oblivious and “unsuspecting” to anything out of the ordinary, or their nephew being sexually attracted to men (18). Nearing the close of the poem, the speaker says that “nothing appears out of character” (34). This statement addresses the fact that the speaker is gay, but no one knows that. Besides the author’s shared characteristics with the speaker, a few pieces of the text are additionally provided that suggest that the speaker is

The grandmother utters, “I’ve seen you” a total of five times throughout Blanco’s poem. Each time the forbidden acts are increasingly obscure and bear no connection to homosexuality. The first actions the grandmother prohibits are looking at women’s makeup magazines

The family has always been a unit that calls for the belonging of the kin. It calls for more than blood relations, but also a relation with ancestry, history, ethnic origins, etc. It serves as the most basic political unit that many can relate too, however, the term family carries a more diverse and complex role that is seen to evolve throughout the years. With the modernization of the human civilization leads to an evolution of thought, morality, and ideology. What was once the idealized nuclear family, is now criticized by many modern day thinkers as it invokes a heteronormative that oppresses any other forms of family and sexual relationships. This concept can be seen in the given article by Bell Hooks. In Hooks’ document, she talks about the racist oppression of sexist domination towards back women. There is a focus on black women in reference to their place in the community, the home, and the home to which they are serving to (Hooks, 1990). Her views show the heavy responsibilities of black women as it reflects their privileges and lifestyle. The second document by Michelle Owen examines the normalization of queer as seen in the Canadian Legal Landscape, assimilation debates, and works to that aim to break the heteronormative family lifestyle (2001).

In the analysis of the language used by the speaker, the nature of the poem is written from a professional standpoint using medical terminology, such as parts of the anatomy. Based on the speaker, it suggests that the poem could be written in support of gay pride due to the lack of shame that he described in the patient. The patient is projected as calm and collected throughout the poem and does not seem

Both Barbara Kingsolver and Lisa Miller address “nontraditional” family stereotypes, such as gay and failed marriages, in argumentative form. The authors approached each issue by providing ethos, logos, and pathos along with making connections to texts, events, and personal experiences; but also differed by the amount of rhetoric used in each writing. Targeted audiences for these arguments are people who wish to understand other viewpoints on topics in which society battles with.

Within modern-day America, there are certain societal standards based on sexual relationships. Within the poem, the narrator, a young woman, questions why she has to “wear the brand of shame; /whilst he amid the gay and proud/still bears an honored name” (Harper 26-28). Within her poem, Harper exposes the hypocrisy of the

Poetry is much different than any other style of writing. Poets have a way of communicating their message in a much more indirect way than regular writers. One reader may interpret a poem in a way that is drastically different than another. To truly understand a poem, one must understand the author as well. Sharon Olds, an American poet, who is known for her morbid and unhappy poems, writes about various themes including political violence, family relationships, and sexuality (Gale). In Olds’ poem, “The Death of Marilyn Monroe” we see her examining sexuality not only in 20th century, but in today’s age as well. Olds uses the death of a famous sex icon to really show how women were, and are still being sexualized in society.

As being developed by poststructuralism, feminism, lesbian & gay studies and even American pragmatist theory (Parker,2001; Seidman,1997), queer theory has become one of the most important theories, which contributes to the research of sociology, arts and organizations. On the one hand, queer theory has been used to study the relations between the sexuality, gender and workplace. On the other hand, by utilizing denaturalized, deconstructive and performative methods to queer the presumptions of the taken-for-granted norms, queer theorists question and disprove the traditions which people cherish (Seidman,1995).

Another thought that pondered my mind through the course of this essay, was that of the continuous sense of isolation and confusion being felt by the poet, so early on in their life. This sense of isolation is unfortunately so prevalent in the LGBTQA community where it remains difficult to be who you are, or know where you stand in a world that can be so hateful. In many ways, I am sure we are all very familiar with the feeling of loneliness and needing to isolate in one way or another. It is incredibly difficult to be and feel comfortable with yourself when so many people are telling you how you are supposed to look, feel, be and act all the time. However, it is especially troublesome when you do not have a supportive community around you and that remains the harsh reality for so many people today who live without support.

Queer theory questions creations of normal and divergent, insider, and outsider.2 Queer theorists analyse a situation or a text to determine the relationship between sexuality, power and gender. Queer theory challenges basic tropes used to organize our society and our language: even words are gendered, and through that gendering an elliptical view of the hierarchy of society, and presumption of what is male and what is female, shines through. Queer theory rejects such binary distinctions as arbitrarily determined and defined by those with social power. It works to deconstruct these binaries, particularly the homosexual/heterosexual binary.4

speaks (but is not limited) to issues of power as it is legitimately positioned around medical and social service practitioners as absolute. Here in lies the strength of the queer theory analysis used by LeFrançois and Diamond as it uncovers specific examples of the use of these power discourses. Holmes et al. (2006) cites Michael Foucault’s words around the idea that the political power discourses in the medical sciences “work[s] to incite, reinforce, control, monitor, optimize, and organize the forces under it.” (as cited in Holmes et al., p. 181)

In Foucault and Queer Theory Spargo defines queer theory as a nebulous group of cultural criticism and analysis of social power structures relating to sexuality . It is these power structures and aspects of culture that are responsible for the discourse that creates and informs ones understanding of gender, race, and sexuality. However these aspects of identity do not exist separately from one another, but are constructed in tandem throughout history. These layers of identity inform each other in a way that is difficult if not impossible to separate. They do not act independently with an additive effect but intersect constructing their own unique set of experiences and perspectives. In this paper I will be exploring queer theory