What is Queer Theory?

Queer theory is a way of thinking that dismantles

traditional assumptions about gender and sexual
identities. It generally grew out of Feminism and
Gender Studies in the 1990s.
Queer theorists analyze gender and sexuality as socially
and culturally constructed concepts.
Is “queer” In this theory, the word
“queer” doesn’t
an necessarily mean “gay”
but rather a position
offensive that rejects conventions
or mainstream
term? expressions of all types
of behavior including
sexuality and gender.
Is “queer” Historically, the word
queer was – and still
an can be – used as
pejorative term against
offensive members of the LGBT
community.
term? QUEER – an umbrella
term for all non-
heterosexual, non-
cisgender identities.
Not all members of
LGBTQ+ community
identify as queer, and
may still find them
offensive.
What is Queer Theory?
Queer theory looks at any kind of identity or
behavior that would fall outside of the ‘typical
mainstream’ or might be considered ‘other’ or
deviant.
It is interested in studying and examining non-
normative expression of gender, sexuality and
identity.
The Queer Space
The Queer Room or Queer Space is a safe
place where all people who identify as
lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, or
otherwise sex and/or gender diverse can relax
in an accepting and inclusive environment.
The Queer Space
This theory rejects essentialist nature of
theories of identity expressed through binary
oppositions – male/female, gays/straight.
Theorists argue that people do not simply
categorize themselves in this way (binary) –
instead there is another spec outside of these
oppositions and it is this space which is
“queer”.
The Queer Space
Essentially, they do not agree with the black
or white version in the world that the binary
system presents. They think there are more
grey areas – these would be the “queer
spaces” where it’s not as simple as
male/female, gay/straight, either/or.
What is a Queer Text?
According to theorists, ‘queer texts’ are those;
- That deal with explicitly ‘queer’ themes and
characters
- That can be ‘read’ as ‘queer’ – ‘accumulated queer
readings’ – identifying subtext context and
connotations that might not be immediately visible
and understandable.
The Queer Text
Queer theory ca encompass anyone on the margins of
society – an outsider – in terms of race, sexuality,
religion, disability – anything.
People who do not conform to conventions
expectations of society = queer.
The Queer Text
Queer theories argues that representations of ‘queer’
people should not be about assimilation or attempting
to get the mainstream audience to accept them – when
‘queerness’ is represented it should be positive BUT not
pandering to ‘normal’ society or conventions.
Theorists in
Queer Theory
Judith Butler
She is one of the foremost theorists in Queer
Theory. She argued for fluidity when it comes to
identity and construction of identities. Where all
identity as performance whether it is our gender,
sexuality etc.; the notion of identity as
performance of key to queer theory – seen this
way, our identities, gendered or otherwise, do not
express some authentic inner ‘core’ or self but are
the dramatic effect (rather than the cause) of our
performances.
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
Since its publication in 1990,
Gender Trouble has become
one of the key works of
contemporary feminist
theory, and an essential work
for anyone interested in the
study of gender, queer
theory, or the politics of
sexuality in culture.
Undoing Gender by Judith Butler
This book constitutes Butler’s recent
reflections on gender and sexuality,
focusing on new kinship, psychoanalysis
and the incest taboo, transgender,
intersex, diagnostic categories, social
violence, and the tasks of social
transformation. Butler considers the
norms that govern gender and sexuality
as they relate to the constraints on
recognizable personhood.
Michael Foucault
In the History of Sexuality, Foucault argues
that repressive structures in society police
the discourse concerning sex and sexuality
and are thus relegated in the private sphere.
As a result, heterosexuality is normalized
while homosexuality (or queerness) is
stigmatized.
The History of Sexuality by Michael
Foucault
Foucault offers an iconoclastic
exploration of why we feel
compelled to continually
analyze and discuss sex, and of
the social and mental
mechanisms of power that
cause us to direct the questions
of what we are to what our
sexuality is.
David M. Halperin
An American theorist in the fields of gender
studies, queer theory, critical theory, material
culture and visual culture. He argues that using
the modern identity frameworks to
understand culturally and historically specific
expressions of desire is poor scholarship. He
interprets sexual histories through a queer
lens that does not assume that identities and
experiences are universal.
 How to Do the History by David M.
Halperin
Halperin argues that hetero- and
homosexuality are not biologically
constituted but are, instead, historically
and culturally produced. Halperin offers a
vigorous defense of the historicist
approach to the construction of sexuality,
an approach that sets a premium on the
description of other societies in all their
irreducible specificity and does not force
them to fit our own conceptions of what
sexuality is or ought to be.
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
Sedgwick argues that limiting sexuality to
homosexuality or heterosexuality, in a
structured binary opposition, is too simplistic.
The author analyzes a late-nineteenth century
historical moment in which sexual orientation
became as important a definer of personal
identity as gender had been for centuries.
 Epistemology of the Closet by Eve
Kosofsky Sedgwick
Sedgwick and other writers analyzes a
turn-of-the-century historical
moment in which sexual orientation
became as important a demarcation
of personhood as gender had been
for centuries. Sedgwick places the
book both personally and historically,
looking specifically at the horror of
the first wave of the AIDS epidemic
Gayle S. Rubin
Rubin introduced the idea of the “Charmed
Circle” of sexuality, that sexuality that was
privileged by society was inside of it, while all
other sexuality was outside of, and in
opposition to it. Deviations is the definitive
collection of writings by Gayle S. Rubin, a
pioneering theorist and activist in feminist,
lesbian and gay, queer, and sexuality studies.
 Deviations by Gayle S. Rubin
Along with her canonical essays “The
Traffic in Women” and “Thinking Sex”,
Deviations features less well-known
but equally insightful writing on
subjects such ass lesbian history, the
feminist sex wars, the politics of
sadomasochism, crusades against
prostitution and pornography, and the
historical development of sexual
Michael Warner
Warner later became a public figure in the gay
community for his book The Trouble with
Normal, in which Warner contended that
queer theory and ethics of a queer life serve as
critiques of existing social and economic
structures, not just as critique of
heterosexuality and heterosexual society.
 Fear of a Queer Planet by Michael
Warner
In “Fear of a Queer Planet”, Michael
Warner draws on emerging new
queer politics, and shows how queer
activists have come to challenge basic
assumptions about the social and
political world.
Teresa de Lauretis
De Lauretis proposes that queer theory could
represent all of these critiques together and
make it possible to rethink everything about
sexuality. She explains her term to signify that
there are at least three interrelated projects at
play within this theory: refusing heterosexuality
as the benchmark for sexual formations, a
challenge to the belief that lesbian and gay
studies is one single entity, and a strong focus on
the multiple ways that race shapes sexual bias.
 The Practice of Love by Teresa de
Lauretis
This book stimulate a reconsideration
of ‘perversion’ and the construction
of sexual fantasy. The illumination of
the fantasies that make lesbian desire
distinctive will necessarily open up
our understanding of all sexuality.