QUEER THEORIES

 The word Queer Theory came from Teresa de

Lauretis’ work in the feminist cultural studies
journal Differences, titled ‘Queer theory: Lesbian
and Gay Sexualities’
 Prominent are :Michael Foucault
Gayle Rubin
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
Judith Butler
A post structuralist critical theory, Queer theory
as a term emerged in 1980s for a body of criticism
on issues of gender, sexuality and subjectivity
that come out of gay and lesbian scholarship in
such fields as literary criticism, politics, sociology
and history.

 Thetheorization of ‘queerness’ works to produce

ideas which relate to how queerness can be
understood in various disciplinary contexts.
 Queer theory grew out of feminism and gender
studies in the 1990s.
 It is not a uniform solidified theory.
 There are no canonical texts;
 no unified single perspective.
 Itis a position that rejects conventional
expressions of all types of behavior including
sexuality and gender.
 Itstudies non-normative expressions of gender,
sexuality and identity.
 Definitions of Queer theory

“Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with

the normal, the legitimate, the dominant. There is
nothing in particular to which it necessarily refers.”
-David Halperin

“The dividing up of all sexual acts – indeed all

persons – under the opposite categories of ‘homo’ and
‘hetero’ is not a natural given process but a historical
process, still incomplete today….”
-Eve Sedgewick
 Queer is often used as a noun/adjective. It is also
used as a verb.
What does it mean to say Queer as a verb?
“We queer things when we resist the regimes of
normal”
- Micheal Warner
Queer theory also deals with the power dynamics i.e
how power impacts the relations and interactions
between and among people.
It says that all our ideas about sex, gender and
sexuality are socially constructed, and gender is
fluid.
 Misconceptions about Gender

 1.Our sexual identity is fixed and unchanging,

static.
But it is not that for all.

 2. Sexuality and gender are seen as ‘binary’- male

and female.
But people do not fix in these boxes. QT questions
the link between these two.
Gender is ‘performed’:

Judith Butler says gender is not what we are.

Gender is what we do. There is no authentic
performance of gender. All gender is an imitation,
copy. –Drag queens and drag kings.

Queer theory questions ‘heteronormativity’ – the

normal and natural attraction and relationship is
between man and woman. Ex: TV/Magzines
Queer Straight: Rather than building our politics
around who is queer and who is not, Kathy Cohen
(1997) suggests rooting political analysis and
strategy around the most marginalized in our
society.

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Thank You