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Queer Theory [compiled by Jackie Susann]
Queer theory is the academic discourse that has
largely replaced what used to be called gay and
lesbian studies. The term was coined by Teresa de
Lauretis for "a working conference on theorisising gay
and lesbian sexualities that was held at the
University of California, Santa Cruz in February
1990". The word queer has since come to be pretty
much synonymous with gay and lesbian (or maybe just
gay male) but at the time one of its main advantages
was seen as its inclusiveness: queer covered gay men,
lesbians, bisexuals, trans people, sadomasochists and
a potentially endless list of others somehow
marginalised by their sexuality.
Queer theory is based largely on the work of Michel
Foucault, a French philosopher with a healthy taste
for a wide range of drugs and anonymous gay sex,
especially SM, in particular his History of Sexuality:
Volume One, Introduction. Foucault's thesis (to
simplify it a lot) is that our ideas about sexuality
are a fairly modern construction (he dates them to
1870, if I remember right). Before that there was no
such thing as, say, a homosexual. There was just
sodomy, a particular kind of sin that anyone,
potentially, could partake of. But in the late 1870s,
the 'homosexual' was invented, somebody whose life was
defined around the sex acts he participated in.
Subsequently, this sort of categorisation spread until
everyone's life was defined by their sexuality. The
interesting thing about Foucault's account of the
invention of homosexuals is that it allows, for the
first time, for a "reverse discourse": homosexuals
could begin to defend their interests using the same
categories and terminology that had been used to
marginalise them. Although the category 'homosexual'
functioned to oppress those it labelled, it also let
them see themselves as a definable group with common
interests that could be fought for and defended.
Foucault himself wasn't a queer theorist per se (he
once famously claimed his work had nothing to do with
gay liberation) but his theses are pretty much
axiomatic across the field. They are picked up, for
example, by probably the two most prominent and
significant queer theorists, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and
Judith Butler.
Sedgwick's reputation was made by her book
Epistemology of the Closet, which consists largely of
deconstructive readings of canonical texts to bring
out the fluidity of the distinction between homosocial
and homosexual relations. She argues that this
homosocial/homosexual distinction is fundamental to
Western culture, and says that any analysis of any
aspect of our society that doesn't take this into
account is fundamentally flawed.
Judith Butler is most famous for a series of books
(including Gender Trouble and Bodies That Matter) in
which she argues that gender is 'performative',
meaning that the sexes have no intrinsic
("ontological") validity, that gender isn't a natural
part of a person but something they have to constantly
enact. This isn't, as some readings would have it, a
simplistic claim that you can just decide each day
what gender you want to be. Her point is, as I
understand it, that all gender distinctions are false,
but this doesn't negate their historical power.
Besides Foucault, other important theoretical
reference points for queer theory are Derrida and
deconstruction, Freud/Lacan and psychoanalysis, and
'French feminism' from Kristeva to Irigaray.
Despite the overwhelming diversity of the material
that's been called queer theory, there are a few basic
tenets common to all. Queer theorists agree that
sexuality is a historically specific construct (note
that this has nothing to do with the argument as to
whether homosexuality is natural or cultural); that
our society systematically oppresses those outside its
categories of sexual normalcy; that homophobia is a
structural, rather than individual problem, but that
this doesn't excuse individual homophobics. Beyond
those basic agreements (which I'm sure would be
contested by some queer theorists), there's plenty of
room for argument and in-fighting.
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