Name:
Gohil Umaba. B
Roll
No: 15
Email
id: Umabagohil123@gmail.com
Topic:
Queer Theory
Paper
No: 07
Criticism
Queer
theory is a set of ideas based around the idea that identities are not fixed
and do not determine who we are. It suggests that it is meaningless to talk in
general about “women” or any other group, as identities consist of so many
elements that to assume that people can be seen collectively on the basis of
one shared characteristic is wrong. Indeed, it proposes that we deliberately
challenges all notions of fixed
identity, in varied and non-predictable
ways.queer theory , in part is
reaction to a school of 1970s feminism that believed each sex comes with its
own essential characteristics. Sex and gender are always strange and they’re
never simple .so here’s what queer theorists most want you to understand .whatever
you think know about gender roles, what it means to be gay or straight, and so
on can be destabilized. Nothing is what it seems.
Riffling
the ideas of Foucault Judith butler and eve Sedgwick then developed the ground
work for queer theory in the early 90s. One of their central ideas is gender performance.
queer theory tells us are learned by watching other guys and girls do “girlie”
and “manly”- not through some secret of genetics . Plus, in reality, peoples
gender and sexuality expressions are very diverse. They’remuch morefluid and
unpredictable than society’s constructed categories would suggest. Queer theory
loves destabilizing popular cultural narratives and by that, we mean taking the
character out of place. And saying nothing is what it seems. This theory is
rebel with acause. It teaches us that language and human expression, in all its
forms, are stranger than we ever thought possible.
Queer
theory deals with much more than just sex. It goes to the heart of a person’s identity,
encouraging us to ask ourselves this question over and over again; who am I really?If
we perform manhood and women hood thenmaybe we perform a bunch of other things
as well. Queer theory focuses on mismatches between sex, gender and desire.
Queer has been associated with simply those who identify as lesbian and gay.
Unknownto many queer is association with more than just gay and lesbian, but
also cross dressing, hermaphroditism, gender and ambiguity and gender
corrective surgery. In KarlUlrich’smodel, homosexuality is understood to be an
intermediate condition, a third sex that combines physiological aspect of both
masculinity and femininity.queer theory explores and contests the
categorisation of gender and sexuality.
The
term “gay” normalized homosexuality.” queer” marks both a continuity and break
with the notion of gayness emerging from a gay liberationist and lesbian
feminist models . “ gay “ vs. “queer “ fuelled debates about LGBT
identiy.queer studies, sexual diversity
studies or LGBT studies is the study of
issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on
lesbian , gay, bisexual, trans gender , queer, questioning and intersex people
and culture. Originallycentred on LGBT
history and theory , the field has expanded
to include the academic study of
issues raised in biology ‘ sociology, anthropology, the
history of science , philosophy, psychology, sexology, political science,
ethics and other field by an examination
of the identity , lives , history ,and perception of queer people.
The
first meeting of British gay liberation front took place at the London school
of economics on 13 November 1970 and the first annual gay pride March on 1 April1972.
Since then the gay liberation movement has sought to fight social, legal,
medical, and religious oppression and tried to locate a whole new cultural
space for the thus far marginalized community. Gay and lesbian theory assumes
that sexual orientations play a prominent role in the construction of social
identity. Sexual orientation is the fundamental category of analysis and understanding.
Gay and lesbian studies suggests that the patriarchy which feminism contests is
actually “heteropatriarchy”. Kinship and marriage are deemed to be completely heterosexual.
Queer
theory argues that following Michel Foucault that the homosexual as asocial
category emerges essentially in the post renaissance period. Homosexuality was
projected as the dark other of heterosexuality. Thus it is not so much
sexuality of the homo/ hetero individual than the political and cultural
context in which these sexualities are lived that need to be studied.
Queertheory suggests the possibilities of political change where gay / lesbian identities
find a voice. Gay/ lesbian theories are sensitive to racial and class
categories within sexuality. the assumption here is that gay/ lesbian
individuals of say the economically disadvantage
working class Asian – immigrants population, are doubly marginalized ;
by the white race for being the racial others
and within their own community for being not- heterosexual.
Contemporary
cultural studies of gay and lesbian sexualities speak of a situational homosexuality’s;
same sex practices that result from circumstance’s-imprisonment and
thebarracks, for instance. This is supposed to be different from
truehomosexuality, which is supposed to be having psychic or somatic origin.
The idea of situational homosexuality brings up the issue of cultural and
social factors in matters of sexuality and sexual preference. There is marked reluctance
on the part of even socialconstructivists and historians of same – sex desire
to analyse the historical conditions of situational homosexuality. This is
somehow renders it ‘TIMELESS’ and therefore in the realm of nature rather than culture.
What is required isstudy of how social scientists effectively foreclose the
discussion of situational homosexuality in order to understand how even so
called cultural historians fallpreys to methods they claim to eschew or reject
Queer theory in cultural studies looks at
various cultural constructions of the gay/ lesbian as deviant, sick or criminal
and ask us to interrogate the ways in which an entire range of sexuality has
been excluded through the politics of identity, apolitics that informs and
governs popular culture representations of queer. Queer theory interrogates the
modes by which sexualboundaries of the inside and outside are constructed,
sexual identities assigned and sexual politics formulated. Language and law
regulate the establishment of heterosexuality as both a practice and as a system.
it is the language of defence and protection : heterosexuality secures itself
against the intrusion of the homosexual contaminant. The
homosexual is the excluded.
In
addition to framing a homosexual canon were gay or lesbian, but whose works
have been queer theorists detect a veiled homosexual thematic in apparently
heterosexual works. Woman’s friendship and male bounding are located within classics
such as JaneEyre as an extension they
also detect the homophobic tendencies in classic literary works .queer theory
emphasizes the liminal nature of identity
they stress the gay/ lesbian identity as crossing over. The work of Judith
butler iscrucial herebecause itoffers a new way of dealing the problems of identity
is not a stable entity. Gender identityis performed and is performed
repeatedly. Butler argues that feminism has presupposed the category of woman as
astable and unitary subject. Feminismby treating the very fact ofbeing a woman as
the defining factor of identity , ignores
others equally crucial factors of
identity such as race or sexuality. Butler is suggesting that even feminist
theory cannot assumes that being ‘ female ‘ or ‘male’ creates certain
kinds of identity.
Thank
You..
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