Queer Theory Research Articles

Queer Eye: The Urgency Of Self-Representation In The Study Of Coming-In Processes And Self-Acceptance Of Nonbinary Transgender Individuals

The non-binary Trans identity is one of the marginal identities beginning to be recognized worldwide. Research articles and academic resources available on non-binarynonbinary Trans identities write about various aspects of the internal and external processes of self-acceptance of non-binary Trans individuals, including gender dysphoria, transphobic internalization, gender deconstruction, and environmental cisnormativity, with various concepts and theories that raise disparities and unanswered questions. In this literature review, the authors collected and critically analyzed 16 documents to fill theoretical gaps regarding research into non-binary Trans identities. It was found that research on non-binary Trans identities has gained popularity in the past decade. However, of the available sources of research articles, few studies have used queer theory to analyze experiences of non-binarynonbinary Trans identities

Differentiating from TV Representations: Shame and the Process of Gay/Lesbian Identification Among Chilean Television Viewers

ABSTRACT The representation of gays and lesbians on Chilean television has increased steadily over the last decades. This paper offers an analysis of the role these images had in the processes of sexual identification of a sample of 25 members of the audience who identify as gays or lesbians. Through a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, it is shown that the respondents believed that the televisual representations of homosexuality have contributed to further marginalize gay and lesbian lives. This strengthened damaging feelings that fed into a sense of shame that was originating from multiple institutions and texts, thus complicating their processes of self-recognition and self-acceptance during their childhood and adolescence. Taking examples of how participants described their relationship with these representations and the ways in which they circulated socially, it is argued that they could only articulate their identification as gays or lesbians by disassociating themselves from these images and establishing a clear difference in regard to them. This was in a process in which several other informational and experiential opportunities came into play, which allowed them to resignify the categories gay/lesbian and lead less conflictive processes of identification.

On Inclusive Ecology Interconnects ‘Nature’ and ‘Queer’: From Eco Feminism to Queer Ecology a New Theoretical View

Objectives: The paper investigates the literary progression of ecofeminism to queer ecology, following the evolution of ideas and activism in these fields. This study examines the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, and ecology, which is important in understanding the interaction between nature and queer identities. This study analyses the environmental difficulties encountered by queer communities and how eco-feminism and queer ecology can contribute to environmental justice based on observations of environmental justice. Materials and Methodology: The qualitative research was carried out using text analysis on the subject of transition from ecofeminism to queer ecology. Secondary materials are studied from the standpoint of advancing inclusivity and understanding the diversity seen in nature. The convergence of queer and ecology strives to diversify narratives concerning the natural world, providing a new perspective on the environment. It celebrates the fluidity, complexity, and diversity found in all life expressions and forms. Discussion: The study investigates the dynamic relationship between inclusive ecology and queer theory, through tracing the evolution of ecofeminism to queer ecology. It recounts the intellectual path from the pioneering ideas of ecofeminism to the evolution of queer ecology, illustrating how these subjects collectively challenge established paradigms. The focus of the essay is on how queer theory, ecofeminism, and inclusive ecology interact in the context of ecological discourse. It examines how these related fields question conventional environmental perspectives and push for a more inclusive and varied method of appreciating and protecting nature. This study emphasizes the critical function of ecofeminism in showing the intersections of gender, nature, and queer identities by analyzing significant theoretical frameworks and real-world instances. The transition of the term queer ecology illuminates how the integration of different viewpoints promotes a deeper comprehension of environmental and social justice concerns, arguing in favor of a more inclusive, fair, and sustainable approach for both ecology and human rights. Conclusion: This research aids in bridging the fields of queer ecology and ecofeminism. The inclusion of queerness in ecology fosters the celebration of both the varied range of gender identities and sexual orientations within human society as well as the rich tapestry of biodiversity in the natural world. The intersectional perspective emphasizes how crucial it is to realize how intricately linked ecological and socioeconomic problems are, and how they must be taken into account in any solutions. The viewpoint of queer ecology equips people to advocate for the rights of both marginalized groups and the environment, instilling a sense of obligation to safeguard and preserve the interdependent web of life. Recognizing that marginalized populations are frequently disproportionately affected by environmental degradation, inclusive ecology calls for sustainable practices that not only help the environment but also advance social justice.

A “Queer” Mother of Nations: Reproductive Futurism and the Maccabean Mother of Seven

Abstract This article explores the presentation of the Mother of Seven Sons in 2 and 4 Maccabees and her reception in some rabbinic literature. It uses as a framework queer theory, particularly Lee Edelman’s concept of reproductive futurism. Ultimately, it argues that the texts’ simultaneous emphasis on the Mother’s maternal body and her masculine behaviors constructs her as a queer figure. This queerness enables her to effectively resist the physical and cultural violence of the Roman imperial project.

Climate just entrepreneurship: feminist entrepreneurship for climate action

PurposeThis paper aims to explore synergies between feminist, first nations and queer theories and social, circular and climate entrepreneurship, to build a framework for supporting climate just entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on an extensive qualitative review of the literature on gender justice, equality, social entrepreneurship, the circular economy, climate entrepreneurship and climate action, as well as theorising feminist, first nations and queer approaches to climate action through entrepreneurship.FindingsWhilst climate change is a “threat multiplier” for existing gender (and other) inequalities, gaps remain in engraining gender equality and gender justice principles in social, circular and climate entrepreneurship. Through analysing the literature for critical gaps and theorising at the intersection of climate entrepreneurship and feminist, first nations and queer theories, the authors advocate that a framework for climate just entrepreneurship could play a pivotal role in combining proactive climate action and gender equality measures through entrepreneurship. It could also be a significant step towards ensuring entrenched, systemic inequalities are not perpetuated in nascent and rapidly evolving fields such as the circular economy, social enterprise and climate entrepreneurship.Originality/valueThe literature on climate entrepreneurship is burgeoning, yet key entrepreneurial concepts lack an explicitly feminist or gender lens approach, even whilst being inextricably linked to effective climate action. This paper seeks to rectify this gap by promoting climate just entrepreneurship as a model for effective climate action.

QuantQueer: Renovating Quantitative Methods through Queer and Critical Theoretical Traditions

Quantitative methods have a long historical entanglement with oppressive ideologies, including eugenics, white supremacism, and anti-LGBTQ+ ideology. Increasingly, scholars have made attempts at rectifying quantitative methods by bringing them into conversation with critical theoretical frameworks. One such example is QuantCrit, which attempts to engage quantitative methods through Critical Race Theory. The present paper attempts to extend that vital work by engaging queer theory in quantitative methods. Several key ideas are proposed for quantitative methodologists and educational researchers to think with queer theory in quantitative research. Each idea is explored with an eye toward queer theoretical frameworks while continuously engaging QuantCrit. Finally, implications for producers and users of research are offered.

Brazilian gay tourists’ hedonistic leisure and pleasure practices

This study aims to determine whether the leisure travel consumption behavior of gay tourists reflects hedonistic tendencies, as seen through the lens of the French philosopher Michel Onfray. The methodology employed in this research is a qualitative-quantitative study, which combines theoretical and empirical investigations grounded in exploratory-descriptive research, incorporating elements of Queer Theory. It provides a concise bibliometric analysis of LGBTQIA+ tourism, drawing from dissertations, proceedings of the ANPTUR Seminar, and articles in the Journal of Homosexuality. The theoretical-philosophical foundation of the study is rooted in the philosophy of hedonism, which connects the pursuit of pleasure with tourism. Empirically, it draws on three sources of data: (1) data published by Community Marketing & Insights from 2012 to 2019; (2) exploratory research carried out during the 22nd LGBTI Pride Parade in São Paulo (2018); and (3) a survey conducted with 1406 gay and bisexual male respondents. The findings revealed distinctions between the Brazilian audience and North American tourists across various dimensions, not aligning with the economic and motivational traits identified by the World Tourism Organization.

Questioning and Listening: An Attempt to Investigate Voinha’s Migration Journey

In this essay I analyze how the artifacts of questioning and listening became resourceful in the procedure of excavating the personal and political reasons behind the migration journey my maternal grandmother Voinha (who turned 100 years old on April 08th 2021 and passed away on March 06th 2022) embarked on in 1945 from Ananindeua and Belém (Amazon rainforest region) to Rio de Janeiro (BR); and further, my own immigration journey from Latin America to the Middle East and on to northern Europe, fifteen years ago. How coupling questioning with listening allowed an oppressed woman to speak for herself, fostering in this way dramaturgies that brought awareness to feminist empowerment as a means to tackle the colonial and patriarchal ways in which the Brazilian national identity, among many others, is constructed. The writing style is mainly anecdotal and based on conversations I had with Voinha on different occasions. The recordings of our last in-person encounter on September 15th 2018 became the foundation for the performance Feliz Aniversário, created primarily as a way of giving Voinha agency in telling her own migration journey. Excerpts of this audio and video footage will be further analyzed alongside this essay. The methodology adopted is autoethnography with the intention to offer nuanced, complex, and specific knowledge about particular lives, experiences and relationships (Adams, Jones, Ellis 2014). Within autoethnographical methodological tools, I delve on reflexivity with the aim of troubling the relationship between researchers ‘selves’ and ‘others’ and offering a re-examination of the paradigm modernity/coloniality as simultaneously shaped through specific articulations of race, gender and sexuality (Lugones 2007). The final intention is to analyze how turning back to my ancestors’ and my own experiences, identities, and their socio-political implications; how analyzing them according to gender and queer theories and from a decolonial perspective, could potentialize my current practice focused on autobiographical performance. One last important point to be acknowledged is my role as an artist-researcher examining the complex ethical and creative processes of working with intimate family memories, observing the growing necessity of developing dramaturgies of care and resistance (Malzacher 2008).

Cosmic Beavers

In this article, the authors introduce the concept of a “queer counter-mythology.” They do so by discussing a speculative song they wrote as an enactment of research-creation. Research-creation names an interdisciplinary scholarly praxis where artist-scholars create the artefacts they want to think-with, rather than analysing existing cultural productions. The song discussed in this article, “Cosmic Beavers,” proposes a queer counter-mythology that reimagines the historical, colonial archive by foregrounding the stories of giant, trans-dimensional beavers who shred Lewis and Clark and use them to reinforce their Time-Dam. Drawing on this song, as well as queer theories of time and anti-colonial thinkers, the authors suggest that artistic interventions invoke speculative lures that, while not changing history, can complicate state-sanctioned archives and narratives of the past and future: they frame this intervention as a queer counter-mythology.

Whose city? (De)colonising the bodies of speculative fiction in Lauren Beukes's Zoo City

This article explores the (de)colonisation of the body and body boundaries in contemporary South African speculative fiction, paying particular attention to award-wining author, Lauren Beukes's, second novel, Zoo City (2010). I will apply Lara Cox's (2018:317) argument that 'Haraway's cyborg resembles the liminal view of identity presented by queer theory, which seeks to blur strict divisions between sexual and gender categories, dissolving binary oppositions such as woman/man and heterosexual/homosexual', to my reading of Zoo City. By centring the novel around Zinzi December, a resident of 'Zoo City' (the marginalised underbelly of Johannesburg), and situating the novel in the cradle of humankind, Beukes reacts against South Africa's colonial history and its colonisation of the body by blurring the animal-human boundary and challenging the colonial construct of body binaries. The novel can be read as a decolonial feminist text as it re-writes South Africa's apartheid history and critiques its division, separation and bodily segregation. Furthermore, I explore how fictional bodies are imagined and constructed in the text; I ask what kinds of boundary-breaking bodies predominate; and consider their thematic, narrative, and political significance in the postapartheid imaginary in relation to speculative fiction. I examine how new boundaries (particularly between 'normative' society and 'Zoo City') are formulated. Zoo City pulls into focus Kristeva's (1982) notion of the abject body as a central to its concerns, while also bringing attention to Foucault's (1992) notion of the 'disciplined' body. It foregrounds questions about the formulation and destabilisation of identity, with a particular focus on the construction of female identity. This article builds on the critical literature on the dystopian post-apartheid state by examining Zoo City's depictions of marginalised people and its construction of the body and body boundaries, as well as by extending the examination of representations of the body in speculative fiction.

Queering the Language of Inclusion: Implications from a Content Analysis of Inclusion Language in Developmental Education Scholarship

Inclusion is constantly referenced in educational institutions’ mission and values statements. Despite their purpose of guiding the institution, these brief paragraphs usually create more questions than answers regarding the who, what, and how of inclusion work. This article applies a queered critical discourse studies lens to a manifest content analysis of the term “inclusion” in professional journals from the field of postsecondary developmental education. Queer pedagogies support critical examinations of power and deconstructing dominant discourses. Our analysis of 112 articles across eight journals uncovered how developmental education scholars’ discussion of inclusion and the nature of inclusion work rarely operationally defined who should be included or who is/ought to be included in conversations about educational equity and inclusion. Further, the data included a strand of heteronormative ideologies that suggest an implicit assumption that being inclusive of queer students is only about discussing LGBT students, rather than acting inclusively of the queer population at large. In applying a queer theory lens, we interweave concrete recommendations into our presentation of the findings, challenging educational scholars, educators, and educational leaders to make inclusion language inclusive of all and create spaces that promote discursive as well as physical inclusion.

Rethinking Queer (Asian) Studies: Geopolitics, Covid-19, and Post-Covid Queer Theories and Mobilities

ABSTRACT This paper considers queer studies in the global geopolitical hotspot of Asia, as well as how we can reimagine queer theories through both the Covid-19 pandemic and the intensified regional and global superpower competition and geopolitical tensions. It argues for a rethinking of queer studies through today’s international relations and geopolitical complications in a sociological political economy. The aim is to connect critical studies with analyses of economic and social class structures, an approach that has been substantiated by the current crises, and to present an expanded queer mobility theory with two brief case studies (mini-critiques) of the current socioeconomic conditions facing marginalized people under Covid-19 and the changing geopolitical landscape. In so doing, this paper actively explores what queer studies can do and can be through the current historical turning point of the pandemic and geopolitical rivalry toward potential post-Covid socioeconomic revival and recovery.

Bounded Nonnormativity of Heterosexuality: Gendered Sex Partying in Hong Kong

Despite queer theory’s intention to critically analyze the institution of heterosexuality, how heterosexual men and women are differently constrained by normativity—or potentially rupture it—is underexplored. Through an ethnography of sex partying, I integrate queer and feminist perspectives to examine how people navigate and cope with institutionalized heterosexuality and compulsory monogamy. This study finds a contradictory relationship between sex partygoers and normativity: They embrace the ideal of straight manhood and womanhood but simultaneously feel constrained by and desire to transgress it. Therefore, the bounded nonnormativity of sex partying, which allows the compartmentalization of normative and nonnormative desires, is instrumental in helping them cope with the contradiction. This paper contributes to gendering transnational queer sociology by highlighting the distinct experiences of men and women in relation to the regime of normalcy in Hong Kong.

Feminism Is for Everyone: Scientists, Too.

Critically informed engagement in politics and the knowledge of social theory help democratize knowledge production, and redress power asymmetries in science and society. A feminist lens is one of the many ways in which power asymmetries in science can be critically unpacked and interrupted. There are many strands of feminism and feminist theory that differ in their approaches to resist patriarchy and injustices in science and society. As an example, I adopt here the definition of feminism of the late cultural critic bell hooks because her works underscore that feminism is an intersectional liberatory methodology for everyone to resist multiple forms of oppression simultaneously. Queer theory is a strand of social theory that came to prominence since the 1990s in particular. Queer feminism continues to shape feminist writing on science cultures and the knowledge-based innovations contemporary science strives to accomplish. Systems science brings about systems thinking, and that includes rethinking science as culture beyond a narrow realm of technology, and being cognizant of the broader social, feminist, queer, and political contexts of science around the world.

Proving gender and sexuality in the (homo)nationalist Greek asylum system: Credibility, sexual citizenship and the ‘bogus’ sexual other

The aim of this article is to analyse and critique Greek authorities’ expectations for a ‘credible’ account in queer asylum claims. As some of the caseworkers’ accounts portray, through 16 semi-structured interviews, in order to be deemed ‘credibly queer’ applicants are expected to have passed through a painful, discursively narratable process of self-realization and have suffered enough in their ‘queerphobic and oppressive’ countries of origin. At the same time, they are supposed to find safety and protection in Greece, following a linear ‘affective journey’ from oppression to liberation, happiness and pride. However, as this research argues, decision-makers do not always comply with normative expectations but, simultaneously, through their performative assessments, they go beyond them. This way, they do not only reproduce but they often resist the homonationalist discursive framework that governs intelligibility in the asylum process; a framework founded on Eurocentric and white-centred presumptions of the ‘good and happy sexual citizen’ and the ‘bogus sexual other’. By drawing on this situated, from below critique, as well as on postcolonial feminist and queer theory, this article seeks to open up racialized, classed and gendered, normative definitions of queerness to different possibilities that do not conform with neoliberal sexual politics and urges for a more critical interpretation of the Refugee Convention.

Knock It Down? Unmaking, Deconstruction, and Destruction as/in Politics Research

Abstract Unmaking, deconstruction, and destruction are part of the everyday life of politics. This article makes an initial case for the plausibility of the argument that International Relations (IR) should expand its gaze and scholarly practice not only into material-aesthetic making, as suggested by the International Political Design (IPD) project, but also into material-aesthetic unmaking and destruction. If making is thinking, as Austin and Leander (2021) suggest, unmaking is also a scholarly enterprise, one that might be as intellectually significant as making, and have important implications for the project specifically and IR scholarship more generally. While I am not arguing that unmaking or destruction is always or even usually normatively good, I am arguing that it is intellectually important to understand and engage, and that thinking about unmaking has important normative implications for making. The first section of this article introduces the IPD project, and suggests that it is operationally and necessarily positive in its current instantiations, despite its criticality. The second section, drawing on inspirations as divergent as queer theory and realist IR, sets out an onto-epistemologically negative approach to IR/the world and uses that approach to problematize the positivity of the IPD project. The following three sections engage with potential negative approaches to making-as-scholarship: negative design, deconstruction, and destruction, engaging with the potential implications for both disciplinary inquiry in IR and the practices of IR scholars in the “world” as such. A conclusion talks about the importance of including deconstruction, demolition, destruction, tearing down, and unmaking in IR scholarship.

Introduction: Posthumanist Gender Theory—A Very Rough Account

This special collection, edited by Anna Babka, Hildegard Kernmayer, Julia Lingl, and Marietta Schmutz cuts across current positions and developments within the frame of what can be called posthuman gender theory, thereby questioning humanist-epistemological categories that continue to shape Western societies and their systems of knowledge production. Posthuman gender theory inscribes itself into the discussion about a "conditio posthumana." Thereby, the traditional essentialism of a biologically based two-gender system is questioned anew. At the same time, the "humanistic" idea of the superiority of man (as a male subject of domination) gives way to a post-anthropocentric conception of reality, according to which binary hierarchical oppositions such as man/animal or man/machine dissolve. This collection among others comprises transdisciplinary examinations of novels, comics, and other cultural or social phenomena and aims to participate in the ongoing development of posthumanist thinking in relation to gender and queer theory formation.

Post-truth politics as discursive violence: Online abuse, the public sphere and the figure of ‘the expert’

‘Post-truth politics’ indicates a contemporary state of public distrust around the legitimacy of knowledge, shaped by the hybrid media landscape. In the present moment, women, LGBTQ+ and racialised individuals also receive unprecedented levels of online abuse. Scholars have attributed responsibility for disinformation to social media and linked post-truth discourse to angry accusations of lying and dishonesty. Yet, online abuse of experts/academics has not been conceptually or empirically connected to post-truth. We analyse Facebook comments on right-wing news articles that question the expertise of academics during Brexit. Using queer theory, we argue that online abuse of experts staged by newspapers is a form of post-truth communication involving a process of bordering through which gendered, sexualised or racialised bodies are considered incompatible with academic expertise. This process legitimises extraordinary abuse including threats of sexual violence. Only by asking intentional questions about gender, sexuality and race can we fully understand the post-truth condition.

Performance and orientation in the media higher education classroom

ABSTRACT This article proposes additional critical media literacy principles regarding bodies and performance to be implemented in the media higher education classroom, based on the findings of an interpretive action-research based study. The study took place in a media literacy classroom taught at a northeastern university. The goal was to develop methods to further decolonise the classroom and make it more equitable. Prefacing the study with theoretical perspectives of performance studies, queer theories, critical race theories, and education theories, I further used Potter’s stages of media literacy development to assess student understandings of media literacy concepts. I further examined student’s understanding of bodies and performance as the focus of decentring normative perspectives was consistent throughout the course. With the use of monster films, I explored how unconventional narratives could be used to decentre norms of whiteness and heteronormativity in classroom conversations. Results concluded that using monster films in the classroom did aid students in participating in conversations that decentred heteronormativity and whiteness, and in doing so created a more inclusive environment where students felt comfortable and willing to engage in critical conversations.

Intersectional blackness matters: Why family science should care about the College Board's A.P. African American Studies course controversy

AbstractThis article examines how the recent controversy about the College Board's A.P. African American Studies course has implications for studies on Black families. In relegating Black feminism and Black queer theory as optional research topics in the course, the College Board failed to recognize the importance of theorizing intersectional blackness in research in Black Studies in general and research on Black families in particular. The College Board failed to recognize how race, gender, sexuality, and other social forces converge to provide a richer picture of Black lives. In utilizing a theoretical lens of intersectional blackness as a foundation, I use both the Florida Board of Education's position regarding the “merits” of the A.P. course and the College Board's decision to fringe certain topics as examples of how both Black families and Black Studies are maligned by framing both as inferior and lacking.