Unit 3 Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual Intelligence.pdf
Queer theory
1.
2. WHAT IS QUEER THEORY ?
•Queer theory is the lens used to
explore and challenge how
scholars, activists, artistic texts,
and the media perpetrate gender-
and sex-based binaries, and its goal
is to undo hierarchies and fight
against social inequalities.
3. The rise of new gay
stereotypes
these cultural products,gay men are overwhelmingly associated
with fashion, style and consumption - characteristicswhich
render them of interest to women (who 'naturally' share these
interests) and whose best friends they become. The gay men in
these media rehearse both what we already 'know' about gay men
while simultaneously reinforcing received notions about what it is
to be 'a homosexual' - that is, particular looks, movements,
patterns of voice, manner of dressing, lifestyle
choices and consumption patterns which are coded as homosexual
are offered up as evidence of a character's homosexuality
4. Queer theory and the problem of
'identity'
•Queer theory is not about advocacy - it does not argue
that the portrayal of a more diverse range of gay men and
lesbians in public culture would somehow solve the
problem of representation - the image of the 'fake'
homosexual is not challenged by the production of more
'real' ones. Nor is queer theory related to psychoanalysis,
it does not look for 'causes' of homosexuality in either the
individual or collective psyche and does not seek to
liberate an individual's 'true' sexuality.
6. Conclusion
•Queer theory takes the notion of sexuality, and
inquires what the consequences are of placing
a person on one side or the other of the hetero-
homo binary. Rather than searching for the
meaning in sexual orientation, queer theory
encourages us to consider how sexual
orientation is made to signify a range of
meanings about the self.
7. Reference :
• Bech, Henning. (1997). When Men Meet: Homosexuality and
Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Butler, Judith. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the
Subversion of Identity, London: Routledge.
• Cantarella, E. (1992). Bisexuality in the Ancient World. Yale
University Press: New Haven.
• Carrier, J. (1995). De Los Otros: Intimacy and Homosexuality
among Mexican Men. Columbia University Press: New York.
• Cover, Rob. (2004). 'Bodies, Movements and Desires:
Lesbian/Gay Subjectivity and the Stereotype,' Continuum,
vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 81-97.
