Disidentifications Munoz Summary

The introduction to Disidentifications by Jose Esteban Munoz discusses how the theory of disidentification is used as a method to self-identify and also survive. Munoz states that queers of color (identities-in-difference) do not simply self-identify through one’s idea of oneself and society’s idea of how that person should be. Instead, Munoz argues, queers of color go through a process called disidentification, which can be done through performances, where they take the majority culture’s harmful images of them and make it part of their own, minority queer culture. Munoz argues that disidentification arises when dominant culture’s expectations and phobias of sexuality and self-identity are used by queers of color to better establish their

For example, when queer theorists discuss queer people of color, they do not consider race in their discussion. Munoz states, “When race is discussed by most white queer theorists, it is usually a contained reading of an artist of color that does not factor questions of race into the entirety of their project” (10). Instead of asking queers of color how race has compounded with the struggles they experience being queer, queer theorists do not even discuss the topic. Similarly, Munoz says that first wave feminism calls for a collective female identification against the “Man”, but fails to acknowledge the struggles of queer women of color “…who must negotiate multiple antagonisms within the social, including antagonisms posed by white women” (22). First wave feminism fails to address race, which is an important aspect of identity. Munoz states, “If queer discourse is to supersede the limits of feminism, it must be able to calculate multiple antagonisms that index issues of class, gender, and race, as well as sexuality”. Since queer theorists and first wave feminists both fail to address sexuality and race together, queer people of color use disidentification (which uses those antagonisms) to understand and establish an identity for