Denormatizing queer theory: More than (simply) lesbian and gay studies  

Oleh:

Giffney, Noreen

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Feminist Theory vol. 5 no. 1 (Apr. 2004), page 73–78.
Topik: ‘Queer theory; lesbian and gay
Fulltext: 73.pdf (60.88KB)

Isi artikel

For Thomas Dowson, ‘Queer theory is very definitely not restricted to homosexual men and women, but to any one who feels their position (sexual, intellectual, or cultural) to be marginalized . . . Queering . . . empowers us to think what is often the unthinkable to produce unthoughtof pasts [presents and futures]’ (2000: 163, 165). Not so, it seems, for some. This short paper asks what happens when a discourse meant ‘to challenge and break apart conventional categories’ (Doty, 1993: xv) becomes one itself?1 Despite Lee Edelman’s description of queer theory as ‘a site of permanent becoming’ (1995: 348),2 many queer theorists have sought to limit the discourse to examinations of gay male and lesbian genders and sexualities alone (or primarily).3 Sheila Jeffreys’ citing of queer theory as the ‘new lesbian and gay studies’ (1997: 277) has, in many cases, held true. In this way, some queer theorists have done exactly what Cherry Smyth warned against: continually substituted queer for gay (1992: 25). In the process, they have reduced queer to an identity category alone, or the ontological and epistemological extensions of an identity category/umbrella descriptor. Those who employ queer theory for anything other than the location of non-heteronormative – yet non-gay or lesbian – identities risk charges of mis-appropriation, mis-use, and mis-understanding.4 This is criticism levelled by those who would presume to own what Judith Butler insists must ‘remain . . . never fully owned’ (1993: 228).

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