Queer politics and theory

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2.3. Queer Politics & Queer
Theory

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Queer Politics
• Emerged from lesbian and gay thinking; differed a lot from feminist politics
• Questions the traditional reliance on identity as the basis for political activity
• It promotes a fragmenting or ‘troubling’ (Butler, 1990) of identity categories
such as those based on gender and sexuality
• To break down the ideas about femininity and masculinity as tied to your sex
• for people to think about behaving in ways that do not
fi
t into those
categories or cross over boundaries so that masculine and feminine are not
opposed any more
• Gender and desire as
fl
uid; they are ideas to be played with, not aspects of
our identity internally determining who we are

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Queer Theory
• A celebration of radical diversity
• Queer theories repudiate binary classi
fi
cation of gender as
identity
• Further the disconnection of gender from sex
• Challenges the dominance of heterosexuality, rather than gender
inequalities
• Identities are multiple, fragmented, and constantly shifting
• Sexual preferences are not seen as
fi
xed and desires are not
static

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• Re
fl
ects the queer tendencies of postmodernity which
reorganised relations of sexuality (as a theoretical strand)
• Post modern queer tendency - self critical nature of
queer, the ways in which heterosexual relations have
become less socially central
• Linguistic turn - modern homo / heterosexual de
fi
nition
• In formulating identities, and socially approving
relationships between identity categories (the dominance
of heterosexuality); the natural course of things
• Boys will grow into men who will desire women, men and
woman will then reproduce and all will be as it ‘should’ be

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• Disciplinary boundaries are a manifestation of various actors
making claims to knowledge and knowledge and power are
inextricably bound together
• The paradigm war; quantitative vs qualitative
• Queer theory would argue, disciplinary boundaries are all
about attempting privilege certain types of knowledge over
others; making claims to being more scienti
fi
c and objective
• According to feminist theory, the privileging of different ways
of knowing has de
fi
nite gender component because objectivity
and rationality are traits associated with masculinity
• Queer theory has alway challenged the dominance of science
and rationality

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• Queer theory begins with questioning the regular
modes of contemporary intellectual activity, including
the idea of disciplinary boundaries, do not serve the
interests of queers
• The usage of the term “queer” was derogatory earlier
(faggot)
• Language matters ; it is an act of empowerment to take
a word that has been used as an insult against a group
to which you belong and to claim it for yourself and the
group
• Queer theory is hybrid in nature; in
fl
uenced by gay and
lesbian rights movement, postmodernism and feminism

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• Stonewall riots in New York City 1969 - against the police raid at a
gay bar; gay af
fi
rmative politics lasting into the 1970s and 1980s
• Homosexuality removed a s category of mental illness the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (a dental document produced by
American Psychiatric Association)
• Successful in achieving social tolerance and some recognition as a
valid subculture or group within the larger society -
fi
ghting for
rights based on their shared humanity
• Internal contradictions; Antigay backlash 1980-90s; AIDS epidemic
and gay communities; separation of Lesbians from Gay Liberation
Movements breaking the commonality; homosexuals of colour also
criticised
• Is there such a uni
fi
ed homosexual identity?

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• Enter postmodernism
• Like queer theory, postmodernism spans disciplines and is
manifested in many different forms by theorists scholars and
activists
• Criticised grand story of enlightenment; rationality and science
may not solve all our problems (technology destroying all life
on planet, democratic rationality
• Distrust on grant narratives or meta-narratives (any attempt at
a comprehensive and universal explanation of some
phenomenon; science is a meta narrative, darwinism
• The broader you cast your theory or explanation the more
likely you are to miss the experiences of some groups of
people

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• Disparity between feminist theories of developed vs developing
world
• Gay men vs lesbian women
• If I de
fi
ne man in a certain way, and u don’t
fi
t that then, you are not
as likely to receive the privileges that go along with being de
fi
ned
as man
• Postmodernism argues that, master frame of civil rights that
underpinned liberal feminism and the early stage of the gay rights
movement in the US was a meta narrative;
• based on common humanity (African Americans, women,
homosexuals, the disabled) (essential structure of difference as a
basis for identity to claim rights based on similarity- contradictory
point- to claim rights was for them to look like, act like and be like
the dominant group to prove that they were in fact all human.

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• Queerness of queer theory the tendency to view any
fi
rm
theoretical footing with some suspicion and it makes this set
of theories somewhat dif
fi
cult to understand compared with
the kind of theories we are accustomed to.
3 basic features
• First feature - Queer theory as a theoretical approach is
distrustful of categories
• Gay, straight, lesbian bisexual, heterosexual, homosexual etc
• Queer as an aggressive impulse of generalisation
• Radical deconstruction of categories related to sexuality

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• 2nd feature- everyone can, in fact be queer and that
everyone already is in fact queer
• 3rd feature - sexuality as an important way in which
knowledge and power in society are organised and
theory of sexuality is theory of society in general (deals
with its ambit to queer many features of academic and
social life that are generally consisted within the
bounds of normality)

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References
• Ryle, Robyne. (2015). Questioning Gender : A
Sociological Exploration. 2nd Edn. New Delhi : SAGE
• Bornstein, K. (1994). Gender Outlaw: On Women and
the rest of us. New York, NY : Vintage Books.
• Seidman, S. (1996). Queer theory / Sociology. Maiden,
MA : Blackwell.
• Warner, M. (1996). Fear of a Queer Planet : Queer
Politics and Social Theory. Minneapolis, MN : University
of Minnesota Press.

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Writing activity
• What is queer politics?
• Critically re
fl
ect how the queer tendencies of
postmodernity viewed gender.