Normalation Of Queer Theory

In Chapter one of Queer America, the book breaks down confusion about certain terminology used with in the LGBT community. Vicki Eaklor proposes that Queer America resembles American history (ex: Civil Rights movement). She then goes on to discuss the dangers of homophobia and heterosexism; both create silence for the queer community. Furthermore, Eaklor goes on to discuss historical game changers in society, including former 16th president Abraham Lincoln. “Was Abraham Lincoln gay?” she suggests. Questioning the sexuality of historical figures in society is something she made sure to highlight, because it should not be assumed that all leaders are heterosexual, which is the “default” assumption. Unintentionally, I have found myself doing

John D’Emilio’s “Capitalism and Gay Identity” contracts what life was like for gay men and lesbians throughout the 1970s and 1980s. During the 1970s, gay men and lesbians were able to come out freely, and eventually started to get accepted by everyone in society. They were able to express themselves without any regards, and started to become the person they were destined to be. People within the gay community have always expressed tendencies of liking the same sex, but societal norms did not allow them to express themselves. However, during the 1980s, as more people decided to openly come out, it started to take a toll on their identity. Society then started to question the importance of people who were brave enough to come out to the world.

This approach to queer subtext has been has always been a part of Western media as we as we explored in the film “The Celluloid Closet” (1995). Queer representation for many years was an continuous uncategorized personification that was vaguely acknowledged but to those who understood the subtext, it became an undercurrent of complex coded information that eventually paved the way for the integration of queer identification within the hetero film storylines. Doty speaks about this and also mentions that at some point in time representation of queer culture and sexuality

The following thesis will lay out the progression in the LGBTQIA movement along with the deficits that these individuals have encountered throughout history. An interdisciplinary perspective through historical,

These physical expressions through “processes of non-traditional literacy production, gender/race/sexuality articulation,” is presented in ways that outside of these spaces, would be “definitionally obscene,” much like the harassment and violence that transgender and gay individuals, along with drag queens, often encountered in 1980s hegemonic spaces (Gregory 28). “The irony is that the very real experience of difference, the heightened awareness that it brings, should help to create a disguise so immaculate that nothing remains but the in-joke of one 's private knowledge,” proving that successful gender performances are not innate nor natural, arguments that 1980s heteronormativity argued to justify oppressive power hierarchies (Hentzi 36). These performances exposed the truth of outside society’s discomfort and defensiveness of their beloved and seemingly meaningful gender, race, sexual, and class boundaries. This is because “if men can be women, blacks can be white, the poor can be rich, and gays or lesbians can be straight (and vice versa in each of these examples), then the necessity and inevitability of these boundaries become suspect,” and these boundaries can indeed be crossed and ceased (Schacht 148). 1980s balls ultimately could prove that “hierarchical borders that previously demarcated superiority and subordination would lose their omnipotent meaning” and these

Queer anthropology is often identified under cultural anthropology and combined with studies like gender studies. It focuses on the intersectionality of human life with various identities. Queer anthropologists ask questions around queer theory and how the social constructs of identity can be challenged to envelop a new wave of thinking. Looking back on historical trends like Stonewall, researchers can see how progressive – or not- society has become in teaching history beyond the normative. They can observe how queer history is often blocked out of education in favor of the

LGBT history has changed the way society works in the United States and has had an impact around the world. The homosexual community came as an impact to the world during the early 1900’s. They were considered different; odd, ill, and weak, but little did we know the effects it would have in today’s society and politics. The war, queer, and AIDs movements seem to relatively impact members of the gay and lesbian community the most. In an series of interviews in “Word is Out” conducted by Nancy Adair and Casey Adair, the reader is introduced into the lives of Pam, Rusty, and Pat; lesbian women living within their true identity during the mid-1900’s. Their stories consist of broken family relationships, marriage failure, and gender roles. To help one understand the dynamics of their relationships and lives, John D’Emilo talks about the effects of war and how it structures and damages the gay community and their opportunity for equality. Elizabeth Davis speaks about the Lesbian experience in public spaces that exposes many to find their character by associating with those that fit best to their community in “Lesbian Bar Culture in the 1930’s and 1940’s”. The LGBT community for centuries has won the spotlight in the news and many articles published in well know newspapers, but what many never get to hear or see are the struggle that many homosexuals face. Both gays and lesbians in the United States have received backlash because of their race, gender, and social class. The

Faderman takes a decidedly social-constructionist analysis as she examines lesbian life in Twentieth Century America, arguing from the start that its definition has less to do with innate same-sex attraction than with external sociopolitical influences. It is apparent that in the debate between the “essentialist lesbians” and “existentially lesbians” she offers no apologies (and plenty of reasons) in siding with the latter. Not only does she explore how the sub-culture continually responds to external pressures such as conservative politics and institutional biases but deeply analyzes how then the community expands and contracts to its marginalization and oppression. For instance, she describes numerous times (such as the butch/femme role enactment and the demand for a regulated sexual intercourse between women in the 1970’s) when the lesbian community – and corresponding social movement – enacts various border patrolling and internal policing to maintain its strict identity as women to keep the pressure and agents of the patriarchy outside.

For every Black man that is born, each is gifted with the rigid expectations of being a hyper-masculine male. These expectations seemed to be passed down through generations from family members. The study "African American Gay Youth and Their Families: Redefining Masculinity, Coping with Racism and Homophobia.”, portrays some of the hardships of coming out within this specific community. A mother who was interviewed in this study said “You are told to be a man … and being a man does not mean you sleep with other men,” she said. “Being a man means you have a woman and you procreate and continue the family name.” And for queer black men especially, this expectation of needing a woman to be the validation for your manhood takes a toll on them and their ability to feel safe in coming out. In this essay I intend to outline the problematic expectations and stigmatization of the black queer male community and develop ways in which this problem can start to be overcome while dealing with different sections of intersectionality.

Stone’s value of queer relocates the hermeneutic for me to a place of power; it now, centralizes power in being able to see pass the norm. It now makes queer the normative response instead of being the outlier of society. No longer does the harlot, the women or the miscreant become demonized while those who finger-pointed become heroes and sheroes because they told on the sinner. Stone gives us a new way of approaching the sinner without first condemning them prior to knowing their sin. This speaks too Dr. Ray’s book Do No Harm, where people are condemn because of they do not meet the qualification of said person who is pre-judging them. Queer perspective provides change through relationship with bodies as text without exegesis.

Thirdly, queers challenge the categories as well as binaries of sexual and gender by questioning the categories and binaries’ reasonability. Queer theorists concern about how and why the categories of gender and sexuality are shaped, thinking the main reason is to better control people so as to achieve political goals. As de Lauretis (1991) stated, the existing strategies of homosexual, which is created based on the existing categories of gender and sexuality, is to ensure the “ center” integrated. Moreover, they reject and question the usefulness of categories. According to

Gender subjectivity is another important aspect of the debate around gender because it focuses on a move away from the idea of innate sexual identity characteristics that divide human beings into male and female (Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, 2014). This type of view challenges the essentialism of sexual difference into something more then a binary between male vs. female, heterosexual vs. homosexual, etc., as it recognizes that these dichotomies are problematic because the term of gender encompasses a whole range of identities across a spectrum. In particular ideas like what does it mean to be equal? (Butler) and seeing division of gender into binary conceptions of identity can be seen as a process of ‘othering’ (de Beauvoir) are some of the areas that this topic examines.

The heterosexual imaginary is immensely ingrained in our everyday experience that most people, including feminist sociologists, has become inclined to conceptualize and theorize based around the heteronormative. The heterosexual imaginary acts as an invisible framework at play that structures our thinking processes and in which constructs our social identity. For instance, the inquiry of a survey taker’s marital status in most social science surveys come to show that our recognized and appropriate social identity is formed around heterosexuality. That is, any deviation from this heterosexual norm would be considered abnormal and be marginalized. To a minimal extent, this focus has served the interests of women because of the lack of activism

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

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