Queerness and Queer Subjectivities in Home Economics: Navigating and Disrupting the Helping Professions in Higher Education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Home economics is a diverse helping field that includes the areas of child development and education, nutrition, cooking, and the dietetics profession. Historically, these fields have been the domain of heterosexual cisgender women, with research and discussions of queerness limited. In this article, using queer methodologies and a queer autobiographical writing approach, we explore our experiences as two queer individuals who teach in disciplines within home economics, with the intent of cultivating more space for queerness within the fields of early childhood education and dietetics. We created common themes of queer subjectivities and queer knowledges from our autobiographical writing. In the queer subjectivities theme, we analyze the regulation and surveillance of masculinities and queer subjectivities. In the queer knowledges theme, we explore issues of queer pedagogies and practices within teaching. Recommendations for creating queer potentialities that disrupt normative notions of care that silence queer subjectivities and knowledges within home economics are discussed.