Queer Relationships Research Articles

To decompose the gender possibilities of the contemporary sestina: queer formalism reimagined through a poetic fixed form

ABSTRACT We are used to thinking of formal principles as either good or bad for gender expression. But might they be both, in some cases? This essay examines the recent work of queer formalism in narrative through the lens of a poetic verse form: the thirty-nine-line scheme of the sestina. Through this scheme, I show that formal principles contained in a single literary form can be conducive to the a priori antithetical notions of antinarrativity and queer relationality of form. On the one hand, the sestina exhibits a narrative-like metonymic extension through the repetition of end-words, a gesture that has been made queer through contemporary poems. On the other hand, the sestina inverts the linear temporality of narrative in its unique possibilities of anti-teleology through cyclic and non-linear stanzaic traversal, stemming from mathematical properties within abstract algebra. The duality produced in this single poetic form adds additional dimensions to queer formalist debates by splitting the problem of antinarrativity from the problem of formal constraint. I also show how Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (2006) offers a reading of the orientations invoked by the sestina’s changing configurations of end-words.

Chinese media production and fandom between queerbaiting and “survival instincts”

Using the term “queerbaiting,” I describe a set of media industry tactics that suggest queer relationships between fictional characters (or real-life celebrities) by intentional hints and jokes to attract audiences. Such tactics are used to encourage online participation by fans of female danmei (literary writings describing homoerotic relationships among male characters, generally written by female authors for a female-dominated audience) in China. By analyzing this strategy, I examine the intersection between three different cultural forces in the Chinese mediascape: the censorship of queer themes, the media industry’s attempts to profit from popular danmei stories, and fans who participate in online data labor. The heteronormative cultural environment in China turned so-called “queerbaiting” practices into a socially accepted and commercially profitable mental game denied of a physical outlet. The de-homoeroticized danmei media adaptations and the fandoms surrounding them show how the media industry and fans interact, negotiate and cooperate for their own interests.

Heteronormative discourse: Therapist social constructions of intimate partner violence in queer relationships

Researchers have suggested the victim/perpetrator paradigm for understanding intimate partner violence (IPV) is limited when considering queer relationships. Instead, some propose a poststructural feminist approach as better suited for understanding the complexities involved. However, in the UK, this approach is rarely adopted. We therefore put a poststructural feminist approach to research into practice. Despite IPV occurring in queer relationships at similar or higher levels compared to heterosexual relationships, queer individuals rarely use mainstream IPV services, owing to real and perceived barriers, and access local therapy services instead. However, outside of queer-specific services in city-centre areas, there is little knowledge of the approaches used or the outcomes achieved by these therapeutic services. Our research contributes to addressing this knowledge gap. We investigate how therapists make sense of IPV in queer relationships, conducting five semistructured interviews with therapists working in small-town/rural settings in Southwest England. Despite claims of inclusivity and liberal humanist values, our Foucauldian discourse analysis highlights the dominance of a heteronormative discourse in the therapists’ accounts, and shows how heterosexual privilege is embedded in a range of discourses deployed. In light of these findings, we explore implications for practice and areas for future research in this underresearched area.

Queer Affirmative Practice in Africa: A Social Work Practice Model for Working with LGBTQIA+ People

Despite the legislation put in place by the United Nations, Africa continues to grapple with issues of monosexism and heterosexism. In fact, of the 54 African countries, 33 have criminalised queer relationships, a legacy primarily attributed to colonial rule. However, social work literature has recently introduced a culturally sensitive model for working with the LGBTQIA+ community, known as Queer affirmative action. By utilising available literature and adopting an intersectional approach, which was collected and analysed through PRISMA, this paper aims to discuss the Africanising of sexuality in Africa. It argues that it is crucial to undertake a critical analysis of the colonial legacy and its impact on queer identities. Furthermore, the article posits that social work education must incorporate knowledge of the intersection of gender, sexuality, and other identity markers to form an inclusive and comprehensive approach towards practice. An affirmative philosophy to social work practice can serve as a counterweight to all punitive and discriminatory practices. Thus, in Africa, the most effective way to improve the well-being of queer individuals is to eradicate structural forms of inequality and decriminalise same-sex consensual relationships.

Familialization of the ‘deviant’: a hindrance to queer community building?

Abstract Familial acceptance of queer relationships has long been at the centre of the same-sex marriage discourse in India. This is no coincidence since in India family as an institution represents caste, religious, class and other social privileges. Developing on Bordieu’s work on family, this paper examines three Hindi films—Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga (2019), Shubh Mangal Zaada Savdhaan (2020) and Badhaai Do (2022)—to formulate the ‘ideology of familialization’ as the basis of the queer narratives in these popular film texts. Through narrative analysis of these texts, this paper argues that these narratives function at two levels: one, at the level of inducting the erstwhile subjects of developmentalist economy into the neoliberal economy; and two, they selectively transform the familial space of these subjects to make it conducive to integrate LGBTQ persons. The narratives perpetuate a consensus about the importance of selective co-option of queer individuals within the socially dominant traditional families, to keep the cycle of social privilege undisturbed by producing what Bordieu calls ‘unproblematic inheritors’. This, I argue, prevents the individual queer characters from building a modern queer community, a radical collective with intersectional politics at its heart, at the cost of alienating those who do not come from such caste/class privilege. This serves the interest of both the neoliberal market/State and the Hindu upper caste dominated social, perpetuating the Ideology of Familialization which eventually has the power to function as a governmental tool of transforming the ‘deviant’ lovers into ‘model’ queer citizens.

Queering Alfred Gell’s Art Nexus: Conceptualising Non-normative Relations and Queer Methods in the Art and Ethnological Museum. Context

Ethnographic collections and museums displaying them are currently facing a crisis of representation which is deeply political. Negotiations mainly take place on a national and institutional level. Yet, in order to deal with conflicts and problems that arise around ethnographic collections in a way that allows for and affirms new relationships being formed outside the realm of representational power, new perspectives and methodological tools from a grassroots level are needed. Intersectional approaches and a renewed attention to relations around ethnographic objects, especially a rethinking of the categories “artwork” versus “ethnographica”, offer a promising route for engaging with heritage as a common ground. As such, they may enable relational politics outside the centres of power. A “queering” of anthropologist Alfred Gell’s art nexus model can be instrumental for the study of queer (non-normative) relations around artworks, including so-called ethnographic objects. The paper proposes an understanding of queerness as a method in the art and museum context, informed by the anthropology of art and kinship, queer studies, and museum studies. This methodology-in-the-making should be part of a toolkit with which researchers and arts practitioners will be able to understand and actively co-create queer relations around objects in ethnographic collections and beyond.

“It’s like Slapping Somebody in the Face in the Middle of Sex”: An Intersectional Exploration of Emotional Abuse in Queer Relationships

“It’s like Slapping Somebody in the Face in the Middle of Sex”: An Intersectional Exploration of Emotional Abuse in Queer Relationships

Intimate Partner Violence in Lesbian and Queer Relationships

Ovesen, Nicole. 2021. Intimate Partner Violence and Help-Seeking in Lesbian and Queer Relationships – Challenging Recognition. PhD diss. Uppsala University: Department of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies. (256 pages)

Psychoanaliterature, or, how the American relational move made Are You My Mother? and The Argonauts

Psychoanaliterature, or, how the American relational move made <i>Are You My Mother?</i> and <i>The Argonauts</i>

The Power of Qing: The Guardian Web Series and Queer Worldmaking in Chinese Danmei

This article examines the web series Guardian (dir. Zhou Yuanzhou, 2018) as exemplary cultural texts of Chinese danmei, which portrays homoeroticism and male queerness in postsocialist China within the contexts of increasing institutional and political homophobia. The textual evidence shows that Guardian constructs queer subtexts and brings out the queer potentialities of the seemingly nonhomosexual media production via the following strategic negotiations: first, by creating a bricolage of science fiction, fantasy, and superhero genres to contest the homophobic social reality; second, by portraying qing, a powerful emotional bonding in queer relationships, and magnifying same sex intimacy as normal, natural, and moral; and last but not least, by interrogating queer stereotypes through deconstructing essentialized gender boundaries and further transcending stereotypical gong-shou aesthetics in danmei. Its commercial values notwithstanding, Guardian exemplifies a critical representational terrain that envisions alternative, imaginative ways to reconfigure gender and sexual identities, rearticulate queer desires, and disrupt insidious gender politics and homophobic discourse. Importantly, Guardian signifies the danmei genre’s disruptive potential to offer abundant space for queer worldmaking, thereby challenging censored representations of homosexuality.

Growing Together: Yang Shuangzi's Queer Adaptation of Taiwan's Colonial Fiction

Readings of Taiwan's Japanophone colonial-era fiction are typically influenced by politicised interpretations of Japanese rule (1895–1945) on the island and its significance to contemporary Taiwanese identity. Till recently, these discussions often marginalised colonial-era texts by Taiwanese women, initially due to limited translation during Taiwan's period of martial law (1945–1987), and later due to the fragmentary nature of these short stories. This article explores how millennial author Yang Shuangzi (1984-) overcomes the anticipatory politics of reception surrounding colonial-era fiction by adapting a short story by Yang Qianhe (1921–2011) through the lens of ‘Girls’ Love’ (GL), a predominantly online subculture made up of media (fanfiction, manga, fanart) portraying queer relationships between women and girls. By understanding the text as an adaptation, it is possible to explore how contemporary Taiwanese authors read and relate to colonial fiction, breathing new life into such texts through interpretations grounded in contemporary culture. In Yang Shuangzi's case, I argue that she not only emphasises Yang Qianhe's importance to Taiwanese women's fiction through adaptation, but that she also creates space for literary play and creativity. The article focuses on the process of adaptation to develop an argument about literary connection between generations of Taiwanese women, whilst also outlining how online subcultures can revitalise literatures caught in the back-and-forth of nation-state politics by establishing their own practices of language and form.

Women’s experience of obtaining health and social services following intimate partner violence: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer relationships in rural communities

The purpose of this secondary analysis was to explore the intersection of gender, sexuality, and rurality in a person’s experience of seeking health and social services following intimate partner violence (IPV). Data from the primary study, SPEAK: Sharing Personal Experiences of Accessibility and Knowledge of Violence, were used for this secondary analysis. This study reviewed the experience of women who identified as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer (LGBTQ) and lived in a rural community. With an intersectional lens, this study employed an interpretive description approach utilizing a case-study design, and the experiences of LGBTQ women who had experienced IPV seeking health and social services in rural communities were explored. Data collected from demographic questionnaires and one-to-one interviews indicated that gender and sexual identity present challenges when intersecting with rurality and IPV. Identifying as LGBTQ may hinder a woman’s ability to seek help from healthcare and social services. These findings may be useful to inform future practice and policies pertaining to resources and services available for rural LGBTQ women who have experienced IPV when seeking care.

Layers of Shame: The Impact of Shame in Lesbian and Queer Victim-Survivors’ Accounts of Violence and Help-seeking

AbstractPurposeThe journey from shame to pride has been described as a founding and essential part of the modern LGBTQ movement. However, the tendency to treat shame as something that belongs to the past has been criticized by a number of queer theorists. The struggle to secure equal rights through normalization has also meant that certain topics that risk demonizing and stigmatizing LGBTQ people further have been neglected. Intimate partner violence (IPV) in queer relationships is one such topic. This paper explores a new perspective on queer shame through the topic of IPV in lesbian and queer relationships.MethodsDrawing on qualitative interviews with 25 people who have experienced violence in intimate lesbian/queer relationships in Sweden, this paper unpacks the concept of shame in empirical data to examine how shame operates on different levels when it comes to victimization and how it affects the help-seeking processes of such victim-survivors.ResultsMany of the interviewees expressed that they continued to feel ashamed about their denial of violence or their own reactions to the abuse even years after the relationship had ended. An additional layer of shame and secrecy affected the violence and help-seeking processes for the interviewees’ who lacked support from their social networks or who were not open about being in a queer relationship. The interviewees’ accounts also contained strategies to resist and manage shame.ConclusionsThe theoretical and empirical contributions of this paper sheds new light on how shame, victimization and queerness are entangled in the case of IPV.

Loafing, Driving, and "Messing About in Boats": Kenneth Grahame's Decadence from Pagan Papers to The Wind in the Willows

Abstract: "Loafing, Driving, and 'Messing About in Boats': Kenneth Grahame's Decadence from Pagan Papers to The Wind in the Willows " seeks to highlight the radical queerness and rejection of heteronormative mores within the classic Golden Age children's book The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. It does so by tracing its roots within Grahame's involvement in the famously queer Decadent movement in late nineteenth century Britain. This reading challenges the much more common assumption that The Wind in the Willows is a fairly conservative text which reinforces "proper" behavior and traditional values. To develop these claims, the essay focuses on the queer relationships between characters, the rebellious behaviors of Toad, and the imagery and themes the text borrows from the Decadent movement.

Our nature: A queer relationship with wilderness

A re-envisioning of our understanding of wilderness, informed by a queer understanding of our place in it, can offer new ways of looking at the climate crisis. A deeper relationship with wilderness offers us new pathways of understanding and connection. For queer people this relationship can offer a healing salve for the historical abuses inflicted upon us by societal structures and can promote a sense of purpose and connection in our existence here as a part of this environment.

Second Chance Summer by Sarah Kapit

Reviewed by: Second Chance Summer by Sarah Kapit Ally Byerly Kapit, Sarah Second Chance Summer. Holt, 2023 [240p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781250860903 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781250860897 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys Ad Gr 5-7 It's hard for twelve-year-old Maddie Simmons to not feel like a side character in her own life when her best friend is famed child actor Chloe Winters. However, after a rather spectacular public humiliation during their school's production of The Music Man exposes the deep fissures of their friendship, Maddie decides to put their relationship behind her and focus on her future career as a screenwriter. Her efforts to distance herself from Chloe, unfortunately, come to nothing when she winds up bunking in the same cabin as Chloe for a summer at performing arts camp. Meanwhile, in the wake of recent professional rejections, Chloe struggles to define herself outside of her career and her mother's lofty ambitions. She hopes a summer away at camp will remind her of why she fell in love with acting, but her ongoing stand-off with Maddie and her growing feelings for her costar, Sasha, leave her mired in drama both on and off the stage. The story's dual narration handily illustrates the many ways relationships can feel completely different to its parties and the pitfalls of conflating ignorance with malice. Maddie and Chloe's struggles to redefine their friendship realistically models the give and take of a maturing relationship, emphasizing the importance of boundaries. The plot, however, is sometimes a victim of its own desire to play it safe. The dialogue between its preteen characters is so squeaky clean it feels inauthentic, and though Kapit's efforts at intersectional diversity are to be applauded, the short novel is spread too thin to effectively delve into its myriad subjects, including body diversity, queer relationships, and invisible disabilities. Imperfections notwithstanding, the novel earnestly implores its readers not to define their futures by past precedents. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Queer Voids

Queer Voids

In Relation or Nah? A Review of Black Trans Feminism by Marquis Bey

In Relation or Nah? A Review of <i>Black Trans Feminism</i> by Marquis Bey

The Queerness of Character-Details

Abstract This essay reconsiders the skepticism toward queer characters and the default privilege given to antirepresentational aesthetics in queer theory. To grasp the queer affordances of character, the essay identifies character-detail as an iconic and embodied dimension of character as an aesthetic form. Character-details beckon for queer uptake, or the recirculation of character-details into contexts, genres, and media to unlock new narrative trajectories for queerness. Character-details thus highlight the promiscuously queer relationality of character as an aesthetic form. The essay then turns to A. K. Summers’s graphic memoir, Pregnant Butch: Nine Long Months Spent in Drag (2014), which takes up the character-details of Tintin to expand the narration of gender nonconformity. Finally, the essay traces how character-details focalize bisexual queer eroticism in Carmen Maria Machado’s short story “Inventory” from Her Body and Other Parties (2017). Taken together, these texts exemplify the centrality of queer characters to—and character as an aesthetic form in—contemporary queer literature.

Lesser Than Equal?

In India, Hindu family law is often touted as a progressive and gender-just law that ought to be emulated and extended to minority religious communities through a common civil code. Against this backdrop, the present article examines the question of whether Hindu family law in India adequately protects women’s rights and, if law reform is required, what should be the factors guiding it. The article further analyses the status of women within Hindu family law in India from the time of the country’s independence and the law reform measures that have led to advancement in women’s equality rights in recent decades as well as discriminatory provisions that continue to persist through a historical, legal and feminist lens. It argues that further reforms to Hindu family law must be undertaken to realize women’s equality rights, albeit within the larger framework of constitutional norms and international human rights standards, rather than an interpretation/re-interpretation of Hindu religious texts based on dubious claims of a “glorious past.” This includes recognition of trans* and queer relationships within the folds of Hindu law. Moreover, the article argues in favor of applying feminist discourses on formal and substantive equality to the Uniform Civil Code debate to ensure plural family laws are gender-just.