Geschlecht und Geschlechterverhältnisse bewegen: Queer/Feminismen zwischen Widerstand, Subversion, und Solidarität ed. by Verena Sperk et al.

Abstract

Reviewed by: Geschlecht und Geschlechterverhältnisse bewegen: Queer/Feminismen zwischen Widerstand, Subversion, und Solidarität ed. by Verena Sperk et al. Simone Pfleger Verena Sperk, Sandra Altenberger, Katharina Lux, and Tanja Vogler, editors. Geschlecht und Geschlechterverhältnisse bewegen: Queer/Feminismen zwischen Widerstand, Subversion, und Solidarität. transcript Verlag, 2020. 218 pp. Paper, €40. Inspired by Sara Ahmed's call to embrace living a feminist life in her book of the same name and to face injustices as a collective, Geschlecht und Geschlechterverhältnisse bewegen: Queer/Feminismen zwischen Widerstand, Subversion, und Solidarität (Shifting gender and gender relations: Queer/Feminisms and resistance, subversion, and solidarity), with its nine contributions, addresses sociohistorical and cultural phenomena and discursive interventions into contemporary feminist theory and activism. Underscoring that gender and gender relations are not only the object of research but are categories that are constantly in flux and transforming, the editors argue for the separation of feminist and queer analyses in order to avoid the latter being subsumed within the former. They call for resistance, subversion, and solidarity as modes of feminist critique to offer multiperspectival approaches to gender and gender relations by engaging feminist critiques of subjectivity, queer theorizing and its politics, postcolonial theory, body studies, mad studies, and intersectionality. Eliah Lüthi's contribution engages with trans* and mad studies in order to argue for an examination of the depathologization of trans* individuals and the repeated and ongoing practices of exclusion of certain trans* bodies. Arguing that norms are defined through and rely on an Other that serves as the referential counterpart, Lüthi considers changes in the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the European International Classification for Diseases since the mid-1970s, emphasizing that trans* as a category has undergone processes of pathologization, its subsequent depathologization, and repathologization. [End Page 127] In her contribution, Tanja Voglers examines the relationship between the queer politics of Christopher Street Day (CSD) and the memory culture linked to the Stonewall riots. Relying on discourse analysis of texts and images, she underscores how the Stonewall riots are considered the starting point of gay and lesbian activism by many activists as well as academics. However, this particular construction of a whitewashed gay and lesbian history eclipses the fact that queer activism and organizing predates Stonewall and that race played a significant role in the riots of the 1960s but is often overlooked in mainstream discourses. Using LesMigraS as an example of an organization that positions itself in critical opposition to the CSD celebrations in Germany, Voglers emphasizes how certain groups are unable to participate in CSD because they do not see themselves represented in the program yet wish to feel more welcome (again). Andrea Urthaler turns to the feminist movement in Southern Tyrol in her article and shows that it has existed since the 1970s. She argues that the movement needs to be interrogated in relation to space, gender, and power, and draws a connection between private and public places and spaces. Urthaler points out that the feminist movement contributed to the creation of women's shelters, archives, libraries, and so on, and thus caused significant changes to some spaces in the city of Bozen. Verena Sperk focuses on the harmful potential of humor and laughter and the normalization of injurious language. However, she argues, humor can also be understood as a mode of transformation, since it holds the potential for resistance and feminist intervention. Using the stand-up show Nanette by Hannah Gatsby as an example, Sperk underscores that comedy can walk a fine line between being demeaning and having the power to unsettle hegemonic structures. The volume's final contribution, by Alexa Baumgartner, examines the Austrian avant-garde architecture movement of the 1960s and 1970s and asks how certain avant-garde buildings have the capacity to deconstruct gender relations. Leaning on contemporary posthumanist and queer feminist theories, she underscores that architecture offers the possibility to rethink bodies in relation to the materiality of buildings, but she cautions that many of the installations do not call into question traditional gender dynamics such as heteronormativity. Overall, the volume is a valuable contribution to feminist and queer scholarship and touches upon a variety of...