Queer, a word first used by the Scottish in 1508 to mean strange, peculiar, or eccentric, has evolved into a critical theory signifying resistance to the traditional views on gender and sexuality since the early 1990s. An Italian author and professor, Teresa de Lauretis coined the term “Queer Theory” during a conference on conjecturing gay and lesbian sexualities held at the University of California. Heavily influenced by deconstruction, post-structuralism, and feminism, queer theory challenges the
biological condition of it; therein creating space for the conceptualization that gayness is, in fact, a disease to be cured. According to Jay Prosser in Judith Butler: Queer Feminism, Freud’s ideology of sexuality was that, first and foremost it was inherently created by sensation of the body (1998). In this understanding, queer is a learned trait, deriving its basis from bodily experience. Freud was not implying that such a thing should be corrected, but it was nonetheless a projection of the bodily
Madness and Mollyhouses: Queer Theory in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde “...[T]he same offence be from henceforth ajudged Felony,” said the Buggery Act of 1533. The offence, of course, was gay sex. It has never been easy to be a man who desires other men. In England, the punishment for sodomy was being hanged. Because of this, English authors frequently resorted to using subtext and coded language to explore homosexual relations in their country. This was especially true in the 19th century, a time of rapidly
The word “Queer” means “strange, unusual”, the same with word “odd”. The theory of queer gender is not a specific theory, but a comprehensive interdisciplinary discourse that come from multiple subjects such as history, society and literature. The theory of queer gender established outside of the mainstream culture: these people and their theory cannot find their position in the mainstream culture, and they do not have intention to do so. “Queer” is a appellation for a social group including people
8. Gender Studies and Queer Theory Gender theory came to the forefront of the theoretical scene first as feminist theory but has subsequently come to include the investigation of all gender and sexual categories and identities. Feminist gender theory followed slightly behind the reemergence of political feminism in the United States and Western Europe during the 1960s. Political feminism of the so-called "second wave" had as its emphasis practical concerns with the rights of women in contemporary
Introduction Teresa de Lauretis coined 'queer theory ' in 1991 (Bell). Queer theory is a set of ideas based around the idea that identities are not fixed and do not determine who we are. Intersex is a part of queer theory that is lacking in research however in order to fully understand problems related to binary sex and gender systems, we must acknowledge the difficulty that binary systems create for people who may not fit into these fixed types of categories. Thus, continuing to discuss and research
has been a lot of controversy surrounding Walt Disney Animation’s most successful film of all time. For the most part this controversy can be equated to the fact that Disney’s Frozen is perhaps the studio’s most on-the-nose queer text there has been. Yes one could apply a queer reading to many of Disney’s previous films but this one seems to be the most “in your face”. This is not to say that was directly the studio’s intention, or that the film is not for all audiences. In fact the great thing about
What does it mean to queer an existing work of sociology? To answer this question I will use the conceptual framework outlined by Stephen Valocchi’s article “Not Yet Queer Enough” and apply it to Katherine Beckett’s book, Making Crime Pay. Valocchi encourages current and future sociological research to be cognizant of the ways in which sociology reproduces binaries and existing power relations by “treating the categories and the normative relationship among them as the starting assumptions on which
Re-Imagining for Representation: Fanfiction and Queer Youth The medium in which a story is told often tells a deeper story. In terms of pop culture, modern media is still targeted to a predominantly heterosexual audience. Consequently, queer characters are under-represented, represented poorly, and often killed. The message within the medium is that to exist as queer is to exist as deviance and to result in death. However, queer audiences are not mindless consumers of these products. One empowering
Chafetz, Janet. “Feminist Theory and Sociology: Underutilized Contruibutions for Mainstream Theory.” Annual Review of Sociology 23. (1997); 97-120. Web. 2 Mar 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2952545. Schechner, Richard. “Post Post-Structuralism?” TDR 44.3 (2000): 4-7. Web. 2 Mar 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1146830. Scott, Ridley, Dir. “Gladiator.” Perf. Russell Crow,. Joaquin Phoenix. 2000, Film. Valocchi, Stephen. “Not Yet Queer Enough: The Lessons of Queer Theory for the Sociology of Gender
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
constructions, specifically surrounding gender and sexuality. The theory this pioneer pegged is now known as Queer Theory, and brought forth in the education system through Queer Studies courses. In the text Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality by author Anne Fausto-Sterling, gender and sex are similarly challenged on both a social and biological level. When reviewing Fausto-Sterling’s work in conjunction with Queer Studies and Human Sexuality, an efficient and effective format
Schrimshaw, Hunter, & Braun, 2006, p. 47). Cass’s model outlined by Coulter and France (2013) lists stages that many queer clients go through when dealing with their own sexual orientation and gender identity. In accordance with Cass’s model, Coulter and France (2013) define the six stages. 1. Identity awareness: When the child or adolescent realizes they are different from others or different from what they have been taught. 2. Identity comparison: The individual begins to explore his/her
My mother gave me my name in hope that the dreamy embers I began with would ignite into a roaring fire. A powerful fire that she could stand back and admire; a fire she helped build and that she hoped would never falter. She wished for me to be an individual and hoped that I would explore every avenue that might give me that spark we all so desperately seek to fulfill our lives. However, society has given me boundaries. They have passed down an unwritten, prescribed set of rules. They have informed
agree with him and would be perfectly fine with him making this law. However, there is one area of the kingdoms, called Dorne, where the people do not agree with this. Rather than believing in heterosexuality, they believe in something called the queer theory: “The provocatively labeled stream of
Queer Theory goes against the standardized norms that we are socialized to believe is “normal.” Men are associated with the behaviors of assertiveness and dominance. Theorists questions, what is normal? Given that we have these expectations on how people should behave, we mock their behavior to let them know it is unacceptable. For example, homosexuality is seen as unacceptable and abnormal. Homosexual discrimination plays a main part in the film, as two of the primary characters are homosexuals
Queer theory and anthropology of gender and sexuality Introduction In the late 20 centuries, queer theory interrogated the reification of binary gender categories and the taken-for-granted ‘heterosexual matrix’. According to Queer theory, gender is socially and culturally constructed, and through repeated gendered performance that individual acquired gendered identity. Moreover, sexuality and gender has attracted anthropological concerns along the history of the disciplines. Though being influenced
Dykes Organize: The Founding of the Lesbian Avengers The Stonewall riots opened the doors to the rise and fall of numerous different homosexual actions groups. The differences in the groups were like night and day and the theories behind them changed with the times. In the 1990’s a group made its debut by coming out strong and forceful. Their handbook stated, “We need you. Because we are not waiting for the rapture. We are the apocalypse.” This became part of a dyke manifesto. A manifesto
The Berdache of Early American Conquest Methodological Introduction This paper attempts to link the facet of queer theory that explains gender and sexuality as culturally constructed identities, with the presence of the berdache in the New World at the time of the Spanish conquest. By analyzing the construction of gender and sexuality among the native peoples, in contrast to the ideologies of the Spanish, I found a clash arose which explained, in some sense, the incompatibility of the two
action for the male characters allowing for a queer standpoint of unequal gender authority within the story. First and foremost what is considered to be the definition of what the queer theory is? Queer theory as defined by Miriam-Webster is an approach to literary and cultural study that rejects traditional categories of gender and sexuality. In other words to have unequal gender authority between a male and female, would give that situation a queer standpoint, and within the novel Frankenstein