Queerness Analysis

1681 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender and sexual orientation

Queerness encompasses the shared position of marginality relative to power, not solely based on sexual orientation or gender identity. It is a refusal to accept dominant understandings of sexuality, therefore, queer is how people see themselves rather than how society would categorize them by using socially constructed labels. Queer is understood as a term for sexual and gender minorities. Queerness is best understood as a broader concept than just sexual orientation or gender identity and is about challenging conventional identity categories. Visibility is power; therefore, gender and race are intersections that help us better understand this broader concept of queerness. Judith Halberstam discusses gender, as an intersection of queerness. …show more content…

She notes it is important in order to make queer really work, it must challenge heteronormative oppression through many intersections including sexuality, race, gender, and economic class. Cohen discusses one of the reasons why queer theory has been unable to effectively challenge heteronormativity, stating that queer politics has often been built around a dichotomy between those who are queer and those who are straight. She states, "Very near the surface in queer political action is an uncomplicated understanding of power as it is encoded in sexual categories: all heterosexuals are represented as dominant and controlling and all queers are understood as marginalized and invisible...some queer activists have begun to prioritize sexuality as the primary frame through which they pursue their politics" (Cohen, 440). While acknowledging that certain parts of our identity may be highlighted to call attention to a certain situation, she warns against activating only one characteristic of an identity or a single perspective of consciousness when organizing politics (Cohen, 440). Cohen advises against activating solely one characteristic of an identity or a single perspective of consciousness when organizing …show more content…

It is also significant to be visible in the society and to do what they want to do. Dorian Corey in the film says, “When you are gay, you are monitored for everything, but you can do whatever you want, when you are straight.” In the film, Venus wants to be a white woman. Being white is a key in being visible in the society so by being white, they cannot be oppressed or excluded. Characters in the film do not want to look like a black woman because they think that this will not make their life easier than their current life. They think that being black will make them powerless and bring them

Show More
Related

  • The Antigay Movement In Vicki L. Eaklor's Queer America

    1579 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Vicki L. Eaklor’s Queer America, the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the years since the 1970s gay liberation movement are described as a time of transformation and growth. The antigay movement, threatened, now more than ever, created numerous challenges and obstacles that are still prevalent today. Many of the important changes made associated with the movement were introduced through queer and queer allied individuals and groups involved in politics. Small victories such as the revision of the anti discrimination statement to include “sexual orientation”, new propositions regarding the Equal Rights Amendment and legalized abortion, were met in turn with growing animosity and resistance from individuals and groups opposed to liberal and

    Read More

  • Pop Culture Freaks Summary

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    They mention the transition of “the closet,” as being a place in which people could not see you, to becoming a metaphor over the last two decades of the twentieth century used for queers who face a lack of sexual identity. Shneer and Aviv bring together two conflicting ideas of the American view of queerness: the ideas of the past, and the present. They state as queerness became more visible, people finally had the choice of living multiple lives, or integrating one’s lives and spaces (Shneer and Aviv 2006: 245). They highlight another change in the past twenty years as the clash between being queer and studying queerness (Shneer and Aviv 2006: 246-7). They argue that the active and visible contests over power among American queers show that queers now occupy an important place in our culture. They expand on the fact that queerness, real, and performed, is everywhere (Shneer and Aviv 2006: 248). This source shows the transformation in American culture of the acceptance of queerness. It makes an extremely critical resource by providing evidence of the changes in culture throughout the last two decades. Having the information that queerness is becoming more accepted in culture links to a higher percentage of LGBTQ youths becoming comfortable with their sexual identity. However, compared to the other sources, this

    Read More

  • The Preformity Of Sexuality In Tony Kushner's Angels In America?

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    In an effort to legitimize all subcategories of sexuality considered deviant of heterosexual normatively, queer theory acknowledges nontraditional sexual identities by rejecting the rigid notion of stabilized sexuality. It shares the ideals of gender theory, applying to sexuality the idea that gender is a performative adherence to capitalist structures that inform society of what it means to be male, female, gay, and straight. An individual’s conformity to sexual or gendered expectations indicates both perpetration and victimization of the systemic oppression laid down by patriarchal foundations in the interest of maintaining power within a small group of people. Seeking to deconstruct the absolute nature of binary opposition, queer theory highlights and celebrates literary examples of gray areas specifically regarding sexual orientation, and questions those which solidify heterosexuality as the “norm”, and anything outside of it as the “other”.

    Read More

  • Born Gay: Truth and Circumstances.

    1431 Words  | 3 Pages

    For years homosexuality in the United States of America has been looked down upon by citizens, religions, and even politicians. The homosexual culture, or the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender), has been demoralized and stuck out and lashed against by the Heterosexual community time and time again. To better understand the LGBT community we must first grasp the concept of Sexual Orientation.

    Read More

  • Eli Clare Freaks And Queers Analysis

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    Eli Clare in Freaks and Queers observes how individuals use certain words to reaffirm their identities and also distinguish themselves from the rest of society. Being a disabled transman, Clare mentions various words, like handicapped, cripple (crip), gimp, amongst others, which have come to be accepted by the disabled community. He says, “cripple makes me flinch…but I love crip humor, the audacity of turning cripple into a word of pride” (p. 83). Some of these words, like queer for the LGBT community, are used as a means of agency and community for minority groups. But he also turns to the ugly side of language, which can be used to decrease and erase the worth of an individual. He mentions his discomfort with the word ‘freak’ and how

    Read More

  • The History Of The Queer Community

    1060 Words  | 3 Pages

    In a structured society, as one we’ve continued to create today, has raised concerns over the way society uses the term queer. Queer was a term used to describe “odd” “peculiar” or “strange” beings or things alike, but over the centuries societies began to adapt and incorporate the term into their vocabulary. Many authors such as Natalie Kouri-Towe, Siobhan B. Somerville, and Nikki Sullivan have distinct ways of describing the way the word queer has been shaped over the years and how society has viewed it as a whole. In effect, to talk about the term queer one must understand the hardship and struggle someone from the community faces in their everyday lives. My goal in this paper is to bring attention to the history of the term queer, how different

    Read More

  • Performing Queer Latinidad Book Review

    1300 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his novel, Performing Queer Latinidad, Ramon Rivera Servera states “'...to be queer' describes the lived experiences, identities, desires, and affects of subjects who practice or entertain the possibility of practicing sexual or gender behaviors outside heteronormative constructs”(Servera, 27). To be Latino/a, while literally meaning of Latin American origin, describes an individual surrounded by a rich traditional culture and added barriers for fitting into white society.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Clubbing

    2234 Words  | 5 Pages

    This relationship becomes a negotiation of gender exemplified through the affirmation of being either a male, female, or part of the group known as lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders, queer (LGBTQ). Negotiating gender is then seen in a field where they can more or less freely express their identities. However, a struggle is seen because of the way in which these identities are stereotyped and judged by the Other.

    Read More

  • Queer Phenomenology Essay

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ahmed claims that “Familiarity is what is, as it were, given, and which in being given ‘gives’ the body the capacity to be orientated in this way or in that. The question of orientation becomes, then, a question not only about how we ‘find our way’ but how we come to ‘feel at home’” (7). This is central to the experience of being mixed-race since although we may “feel at home” in certain spaces, the lack of those orientations around “mixed-raceness” causes us to constantly be disoriented. Ahmed herself noticed the pattern: “Wanting to be white for the mixed race child is about the lived experience of not being white even when whiteness is ‘at home’” (146). While disorientation is central to the mixed-race experience and clearly offers a new perspective on racism, this is not isolated to us. Ahmed oversimplified the possibility and the options of queering race, yet there is

    Read More

  • Queer Culture Critique

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    For Queer Culture Critique assignment, I chose to attend Amy Cousins’s drag show on October 7, 2017, at the University Galleries with a couple of my friends who were curious about drag show as also. The drag show is in place to celebrate the Queer culture and to celebrate the Amy Cousins’s art while engaging in the LGBTQ* culture as also. I consider this event as part of Queer culture because drag shows are one of well-known artifact in the Queer culture. The drag performers would display their personality and have fun that will express their personality they would not do in their daily life. The drag performers were awesome.

    Read More

  • Homonformativity Essay

    1043 Words  | 3 Pages

    She argues that the interaction between the forces of governance and the gay rights movement is far more complicated than the idea of homonormativity, and the inclusion/exclusion binaries which are inherent in much of the academic work on the subject (Podmore, 2013). This argument is also put forward by Brown, who notes that homonormativity tends to be interpreted as a uniform force, which not only gives it more discursive power, but can also cause researchers to miss specificities in the way homonormativity occurs in everyday life (Brown, 2009), such as in areas where couples may have the legal right to be married but not to kiss in public (Hubbard, 2013) – tolerance differs greatly from acceptance (Cover,

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Feminist Theory: From Margin To Center By Bell Hooks

    1987 Words  | 4 Pages

    However, the stigma of openly sexual women was not eliminated therefore marking down women's sexual freedom because of the stigma they carry in society.In conclusion, chapter by chapter hooks highlights how feminist theory repeatedly excluded non-white and working class women by ignoring white supremacy as a racial problem and by disregarding the highly psychological impact of class in their political and social status all while, in the case of black women, facing three classes of oppression in a racist, sexist and capitalist state. Throughout the book the author defines feminism, the meaning of sisterhood, what feminism is to men in addition to brushing upon power, work, violence and education. Although I found some elements of this book problematic hooks' critiques of feminist theory and the movement are well-presented, piercingly direct and remain relevant.

    Read More

  • Homosexualtiy and Heterosexuality

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    Homosexuality and heterosexuality have become major subject matters throughout the early twenty-first century. However, these qualities have previously existed and have preoccupied the minds of countless theorists and critics for several years. Homosexuality is not only a common aspect in the twenty-first century world, but has also been developing into a literary critique know as “queer theory.” The theory consists of evaluating the unity between male and female counterparts within the same individual. Queer theory functions in a way that ultimately discards differences between gender and sexuality among characters. Some theorists “use the term to apply specifically to gender and sexual orientations (such as transgender) that challenge or complicate the presumed alliance between sexual identity and gender identity” (Grant 363). Queer theory originated around the 1990s when heterosexuality began to be challenged by psychological and cultural aspects of individuals and society. As the theory emerged, Alexander Doty recognized the ability to comprehend texts trough the perceptions of queer theory (Grant 363). Judith Butler, a theorist and philosopher, is also associated with the rise of queer theory. Butler conveyed the idea that “gender is a fluid variable, with no independent existence of its own, and it shifts and changes depending on a person's context” (Ruttenberg 317). Butler believes that certain actions weaken a binary gender system; thus, a more “equal” society may ascend in which individuals are not limited to certain male and female roles (Ruttenberg 317). Cross-dressing, dressing in clothing typically worn by members of the opposite sex, has also affected the idea of queer theory. As a result, the differences of gender...

    Read More

  • Discrimination Against LGBT Community

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    The dictionary defines discrimination as the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or identified sex and sexual orientation. The term LGBT stands for, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. These terms refer to sexual orientation and also gender identity. Every day people of the LGBT community suffer wrongful terminations and oppression in their schools for their sexual orientation or identified gender.

    Read More

  • Heterosexuality Reflection Paper

    1368 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...en men and women. In her critical heterosexuality studies, she questions heterosexuality as inevitable and normative, and challenges its dominance. She interrogates specific meaning associated with heterosexuality by focusing on institution and discourse.

    Read More

More about Queerness Analysis

Open Document