Contesting ‘Straights’ ‘Lesbians,’ ‘Queer Heterosexuals’ and the Critique of Heteronormativity

Abstract

The essay explores interrelations between Lesbian Theory and Queer Straight Theory. It provides a brief genealogy and an interrogation of the “discourse of queer heterosexuality.” I argue that Queer Straight Theory is certainly indebted to lesbian (and) feminist critiques of institutional heterosexuality and their denaturalizations of straight and lesbian sexualities. Lesbian and Queer Straight Theories remain in disagreement, however, about notions of power and identity that shape their theoretical and political stances.