Queer Theory Research Articles

Documenting diversity on screen: interactive documentaries (i-docs) as tools for queer activism

ABSTRACT This article advocates for the use of online interactive documentaries (i-docs) by creative practitioners and creative practice academics for social and cultural activism by drawing on two LGBTIQA + focused i-docs: Queer Representation Matters [Krikowa, Natalie, dir. 2023. Queer Representation Matters. Sydney, Australia. http://www.queerrepresentationsmatters.com.] and Queer Interruptions [Aguas, Evangeline, dir. 2021. Queer Interruptions. Sydney, Australia.]. Queer Representation Matters explores historical and contemporary issues in queer screen representation in Australia and overseas. The i-doc draws from interviews with queer screen media scholars, TV writers and directors and film festival curators, to investigate storytelling tropes such as ‘bury your gays’ and ‘cancel your gays’ within an industrial context to highlight the importance of representation of queer people and stories in screen media. Queer Interruptions focuses on the contemporary queer viewing experience and queer fans’ reactions to tropes such as ‘bury your gays’. The project explores the sense of repetition and melancholy that fans felt upon reliving these deaths, linking these to abstract theories of queer time. The work seeks to intervene in issues of queer representation through a multidisciplinary, innovative, and accessible approach to queer theory, fan studies and online interactive works. These works illustrate how creative practice researchers can make research on activism accessible to a wider range of audiences outside of the academy.

Perspectives on Cross-Dressing in the University: Understanding Views on Gender Expression and Inclusivity in Advancing Sustainable Development Goal 5

Objective: This study aims to explore the perspectives of students and faculty on cross-dressing as a form of gender expression within the university. Specifically, it examines how these views influence the inclusivity of gender diversity in higher education and offers recommendations for improving institutional support for cross-dressers. Theoretical Framework: The research is grounded in Judith Butler's Gender Performativity Theory, which challenges traditional gender norms by framing gender as a social construct, and Queer Theory, which emphasizes the fluidity of gender identity and critiques heteronormative structures. Method: Using a parallel convergent mixed-methods design, the study surveyed 1,530 students and conducted semi-structured interviews with six faculty and two staff members. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, while thematic analysis was applied to qualitative data. Results and Discussion: The findings reveal a growing acceptance of cross-dressing in the university, with education and social media as key factors influencing positive attitudes. However, conservative cultural and religious beliefs continue to limit full acceptance. Institutional policies supporting gender inclusivity exist but are often inadequately implemented, leading to discrimination and social challenges for cross-dressing students. Research Implications: The study highlights the need for stronger policy implementation, inclusivity training for faculty, and ongoing efforts to create a supportive campus culture. Originality/Value: This research contributes to the limited body of knowledge on cross-dressing in Philippine higher education, providing insights into the intersection of gender expression and inclusivity, and offering practical recommendations for fostering a more inclusive academic environment.

Normative anti-normativity: when Dugin reads queer theory

Normative anti-normativity: when Dugin reads queer theory

Queer theory, normalising regimes and the cultivation of (safe) sportscapes: a queer intersectional praxis for belonging and inclusion in physical education?

ABSTRACT This paper draws on data from a case study into a local women’s Australian Rules football team, investigating how players experienced the particularities of the sportscape in which they played. Emerging from the dataset was an overwhelming emphasis on discourses of belonging and inclusion, with players expounding on the nuances of this space as somewhere that their variously gendered bodies, sizes, abilities and selves were not just accommodated, but normalised. Reflecting various axes by which inclusion was experienced, players highlight the enactment of an intersectional lens which enabled a sportscape in which difference was seen, accepted and responded to inclusively. Drawing on queer theory, this paper explores how normalising difference – applying a queer theoretical lens – undermined normalising regimes across various axes of difference in this local sportscape, with implications for players’ experiences and participation. It further asks what role the active cultivation of this sportscape played in impacting players’ experiences and perceptions of acceptance, inclusion and belonging, and asks whether a queer lens – a critical consciousness of and around normalising regimes of power and hegemony along various axes – might offer us ways for thinking through the cultivation of more inclusive (safer) physical education spaces. A queer theoretical lens demonstrates the ways in which normalising regimes re/produce that which becomes hegemonic within different spaces. This paper considers how we can apply the principles of normalising difference within this football sportscape to physical education (PE) spaces to explore how PE teachers might cultivate spaces which foster inclusion, belonging, participation and engagement through normalising diversity in relation to intersectional axes of difference.

Rings and Rebuttals: A Quasi-Experimental Study on the Psychological Impact of Marriage Equality on Low-Income Black Sexual Minorities in the United Kingdom.

Critiques from queer theory have suggested that the legalization of same-sex marriage (SSM) predominantly benefits White, middle-class segments of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) community. This study investigates the impact of the legalization of SSM on mental health among Black LGB individuals, focusing on those with lower incomes in the UK. Using a nationally representative panel sample and employing a quasi-experimental methodology, we analyzed changes in psychological distress and life dissatisfaction following the legalization of SSM. Results indicate that the legalization of SSM significantly reduced psychological distress and improved life satisfaction for Black LGB individuals in the UK, with stronger benefits among those with lower incomes. Specifically, the study found a decrease in psychological distress by 2.61 (95%CI: - 5.07 to - 0.15) points and life dissatisfaction by 0.56 (95%CI: - 0.98 to - 0.14) points relative to Black heterosexual counterparts. When compared to White LGB individuals, further reductions were observed. Notably, the most substantial benefits were seen among lower-income Black LGB participants, who experienced reductions in psychological distress of 5.31 (95%CI: - 9.52 to - 1.11) points and in life dissatisfaction of 1.21 (95% CI: - 2.02 to - 0.40) points compared to their lower-income White LGB counterparts. These findings challenge the assumption, suggested by queer theory, that the legalization of SSM primarily benefits White LGB people. The study emphasizes the need for comprehensive strategies that address broader social determinants of health to continue improving mental health for Black LGB individuals.

The Traumatic Foundation of Queer Identity in Pajtim Statovci’s Crossing

Since trauma engenders instabilities, it has the potential to queer one’s identity. If there is no singular definition of queer — a term that has taken multiple iterations since its emergence in the literary landscape — then there is perhaps no consensus on how queer identity is fostered and formed. In recent literature, queerness is often positioned as an “other”, damaged identity that results from trauma rather than one that is the result of a natural, inevitable process or a positive, individual choice. Pajtim Statovci’s Crossing (2019) suggests that traumatic experiences might have an impact on one’s queer-identity formation. In the novel, what the protagonist, Bujar, imbibes from various traumatic experiences becomes indelibly a part of his queer identity. Bujar’s queer consciousness proceeds from trauma and tragedy. By relying on different facets of queer theory and trauma theory, this paper traces the influence of Bujar’s traumatic experiences on his identity and contends that trauma has the potential to denaturalize and queer one’s identity. Spectrum, Volume 18, June 2023: 69-79

Queering Contemporary Comedy: FX's What We Do in the Shadows and the Mediation of Nonnormative Gender and Sexual Identities

Utilizing queer theory, a textual analysis of 50 episodes of the FX horror-comedy series What We Do in the Shadows (2019–) resulted in three overarching themes: (1) representation of different forms of queerness and open expression of character identities, (2) normalization of queer identity and resistance to homophobia, and (3) inclusivity of relational configuration beyond queer-based narratives. Findings demonstrate the series promotes a queer perspective in addition to outright support for nonheteronormative characters. This reading of its dialogic and visual text adds to the literature on the positive media treatment of LGBTQ+ communities and how popular media texts serve as conduits of resistance to normative heterosexuality. Research in this vein is especially cogent and relevant given increasing antitransgender and intersex legislation that marks the U.S. political environment in recent years.

United Nations, the Struggle for Gender Equity, and Queering Global Science.

UN Women is the United Nations "entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women". UN Women is an example of the institutions of global governance that followed the gender turn in women's rights over the past 2 decades. This opinion commentary unpacks a brief history of UN Women, and the ongoing disparities in gender diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in science, engineering, and medicine, not to mention in science communication, with the aim to shed light on the adverse impacts of gender essentialism and gender binary. First, I argue that another world and liberatory structural change are indeed possible by resisting and refusing empty platitudes for band-aid solutions, disingenuous pleasantries and cultures of scheming for professional ladder-climbing that cloak the systemic causes-of-causes and sustain DEI inequities. Second, I argue for systems thinking and reflexive change in research cultures through queering global science, and rethinking everyday hegemonic assumptions and the prevailing blind spots in sex, gender, science, and society. Third, queer theory is not limited to studies of gender and sexuality. When used as a verb, "queering," its meaning broadens so as to mean critical examination of the unchecked assumptions and norms in a given field of scholarly inquiry. The DEI inequities in science, engineering, and medicine are real, harmful to individuals and communities in the present historical moment, and undermine intergenerational justice, not to mention hinder science and innovation. Going forward in the current decade amid uncertainty and polycrisis in world affairs and global democracy, the systemic gaps in gender equity in everyday laboratory life and on the streets ought to be remedied for global science and planetary health to be just, responsible, democratic, and innovative.

Intimacies of Guerillas: Palestinian Liberation and the Cold War Revolutionary Image

Intimacies of Guerillas: Palestinian Liberation and the Cold War Revolutionary Image

Once Upon a Lesbian Theory

ABSTRACT“Once Upon a Lesbian Theory” analyzes how stories told about the origins of queer theory can distort and exclude, extending Kent Brintnall's “Once Upon a Queer Theory” in a lesbian key. I first consider the fate of lesbian theory as it emerges within one dominant mode of queer storytelling: the progress narrative. I trace the racial and temporal politics of this story across queer theory, religious studies, and theology. Next, I turn to two literary critics, Barbara Christian and Barbara Johnson, to glean two approaches to lesbian theory. In the concluding section, I go looking for lesbian theory, considering sites, sources, and archives for lesbian theorizing within religious studies and theology. “Once Upon a Lesbian Theory” is ultimately a fabled story that invites us to think about the complicities, contradictions, and desires that shape the stories we tell about lesbian, trans, and queer theory.

Response 4: Refractions: Moving with Queer Theory into Queer Poethics

Response 4: <i>Refractions:</i> Moving with Queer Theory into Queer Poethics

“A capacious hermeneutics” of The World That Belongs to Us: Akhil Katyal and Aditi Angiras in conversation

ABSTRACT In this interview, poet practitioners and scholars Akhil Katyal and Aditi Angiras, traverse the intersections of queer identities, poetry/literature, digital spaces, and activism. Katyal and Angiras revisit/rethink the complexities of queer progress, emphasising a ‘capacious hermeneutics’ and deconstructing monolithic narratives that centres on same-sex marriage or assimilation into heteronormative structures. They reflect on the fluidity of queer identities, highlighting the evolving relationship individuals have with the names/labels they choose for themselves. The interview further explores the disparity in queer representation within academic versus popular culture, with a focus on the underrepresentation of queer women and trans men in media/television/popular culture, in contrast to their prominence in academia. Katyal and Angiras accentuate the transformative potential of digital platforms, examining how they both amplify queer voices and expose individuals to heightened vulnerability, ‘accelerated versions of reality’, and trolling. The poets emphasise the need to embrace heterotopias, diverse, coexisting spaces of queer expressions and activism, while acknowledging the ongoing struggles for trans/queer safety, homelessness, and marginalised communities within the larger queer movement. As well, the conversation informs the ongoing evolution of queer narratives both in literature, poetry, and broader cultural spaces, advocating for inclusivity, intersectionality, and a departure from monolithic understandings of queer progress.

Reanimating data: Working with archives to revitalise young sexualities, past and present

Purpose: In this paper, we outline a method for working with the long past materials of social research to forge a method for engaging and co-producing knowledge with new audiences in the present. Findings: Situated in a conceptual landscape of queer theory and feminist archive activism, through this paper we share what happened when a 30-year-old landmark feminist research project (the Women, Risk &amp; AIDS Project) was saved, archived and shared with new generations of young women and youth workers. We outline four key methods that characterise the approach taken: collaging, re-asking, re-voicing and re-collecting. The method is offered as both a research method for co-producing knowledge about sexuality, sexual health and perceptions of social change as well as a pedagogical practice that can be taken up by and with young people in their own projects of enquiry. Conclusions: We encourage a new set of research and educational practices that start with, and creatively animate, qualitative research data.

The Rise and Assimilation of Western Queer Cinema: Resistance and Dilemma in the Mainstream

Queer cinema has risen to prominence in recent years, frequently featured at major international film festivals and gaining a foothold in the global market. As an extension of queer theory, which highlights the fluidity of gender and sexuality, queer cinema initially aimed to challenge traditional gender norms and heteronormativity through radical narrative structures and visual expressions. Early queer films often subverted mainstream narratives, offering an alternative, politically charged lens to explore marginalized identities. However, as queer cinema has increasingly entered the mainstream market, it has been subjected to assimilation and commodification pressures. This has led to a dilution of its radical and subversive elements, as the narratives are increasingly shaped to fit within heteronormative frameworks. Queer characters, once at the centre of challenging societal norms, are now often marginalized or simplified to meet the expectations of broader, more mainstream audiences. This paper examines how capitalism and patriarchy have contributed to the assimilation and marginalization of queer cinema, limiting its political expression and cultural impact. While Russo highlights how Hollywood perpetuates lazy stereotypes of queer characters, White suggests that cinema, as a tool of capitalist and patriarchal power, helps maintain normative gender and sexual roles. Despite these challenges, queer cinema remains an important cultural tool for breaking down stereotypes and resisting the dominance of heteronormativity. To maintain its relevance and continue its political and cultural resistance, queer cinema must resist commodification and strive for more diverse, authentic representations of queer identities.

The library is open: a scoping review on queer representation in psychedelic research.

The intersection of queer identity and psychedelics has not been thoroughly explored by the research community, historically or in the present day. With growing access to legal psychedelic therapies, it is essential that queer psychedelic experiences are understood sufficiently by clinicians in order to provide the most safe and effective care possible. Psychedelics and queerness are intricately related, and there is strong interest in the use of psychedelics for healing and identity development among queer populations. However, the vast majority of the literature stigmatizes and problematizes queer psychedelic use. Therefore this scoping review seeks to explore the current and historical overlap between psychedelics and queerness in the academic literature. Specifically, this scoping review aims to understand the available academic literatures' treatment of the meaningful, non-pathologizing use of psychedelics within the queer community, and seeks to highlight the unique potential a queer lens and the queer experience can bring to the study of psychedelics. To do so, we asked what queer psychedelic experiences are reflected in the literature, who is being studied, what queer individuals' motivations are for using psychedelics, and a review of the impacts of queer psychedelic use discussed in the literature. Literature searches were performed in seven academic databases using a wide breadth of both queer-related and psychedelic-related keywords, which resulted in over thirty thousand resources being captured. After screening, a total of 18 resources were collected as representative of the meaningful overlap of psychedelics and queerness. Based on the findings and research gaps identified, this scoping review makes several recommendations regarding future directions psychedelic researchers and clinicians can pursue to better understand and benefit from the meaningful overlap of psychedelics and queerness. By reclaiming, redefining, and reimagining the meaningful relationship between psychedelics and the queer experience, this review helps move the scientific and clinical conversation into queerer spaces, centering queerness and queer experiences as an essential component of psychedelic research and practice.

Queering Coupledom?

In recent years, popular interest in consensual non-monogamy (CNM) – including swinging, open relationships, and polyamory – has grown steadily in Finland. Finnish online media has started to explore intimate practices in which individuals agree to engage in sexual and/or relationships with multiple partners. In this article, we analyze fifty-six human-interest stories on CNM from the five largest online news platforms in Finland, published between 2017 and 2021, to build an understanding of how media representations of CNM contribute to constructing or deconstructing mononormativity and couple-normativity in Finland. The study locates in the field of critical social psychology, queer and feminist theories of non-normative intimacies and employs reflexive thematic analysis to examine how mono- and couple-normativities are in institutional contexts and the ways online news shapes public knowledge, understanding, and attitudes. Our findings indicate that while media representations CNM as a and beneficial relationship option for some, underlying assumptions of mononormativity and couple-normativity remain strong.

Infrastructures of Migrant Intimacies

This paper explores how housing, people and places function as infrastructures in discussions of migrant intimacies. Intimacy is here understood both as relations between humans and as co-becomings with the more-than-human. The concept of co-becoming refers to the ontological thinking that all beings, materialities, places and affects are constituted through relations that are constantly regenerated. Infrastructures are understood not as prefigured objects or structures but as relational, dynamic patterns. Drawing on post-humanist queer theory, the paper develops the notion of the infrastructure of migrant intimacies to portray migrant relations in ways that move beyond normative categories of intimacy. The article draws on a theory-driven analysis of interviews with European Union (EU) and non-EU migrants working in low-paid jobs in Finland. The article addresses the following question: how do human and more-than-human infrastructures converge as intimacies in migrants’ accounts? By focusing on infrastructures, the article offers a nuanced interpretation of how migrant intimacies emerge in the context of precarity as creative, temporary and ambivalent co-becomings that do not easily align with white (hetero)normative notions of intimacy or with some popular queer understandings of intimacy.

Exploring how Parents can Promote Gender Diversity in South African High Schools

By examining the voices of parents regarding the extent to which South African high schools maintain a cisnormative culture, this paper aims to explore how parents' understanding of gender can play a role in promoting gender diversity. Drawing on a qualitative study conducted in the Free State Province of South Africa and framed by both Queer Theory and the African philosophy of Ubuntu. A focus group interview was employed to interview nine parents. Consistent with many international studies on the experiences of parents regarding gender diversity in high schools, this paper found that most of the parents’ views were influenced by cultural and religious backgrounds. The results reveal that parents' understanding of gender can play a role in promoting gender diversity in South African high schools. Results further reveal an emerging understanding that gender diversity is real, not mythical. This paper calls for more research to examine how parents can help others to embrace gender diversity through various school platforms to accelerate parental support of trans learners. Lastly, the Department of Basic Education can formulate a policy that will assist schools in engaging parents to support schools in promoting gender diversity.

Prominently Portrayed? A Content Analysis Exploring Queer Representation in Food and Agriculture Magazines

Prominently Portrayed? A Content Analysis Exploring Queer Representation in Food and Agriculture Magazines

Dismantling amatonormative biases and expanding queer-affirmative psychotherapy: The role of trainers.

The present article aims to provide a pathway for trainers to expand and transform queer-affirmative psychotherapy practice to be more inclusive of queer groups that are underdiscussed in research and misunderstood in therapy settings, namely, people who are asexual, aromantic, and polyamorist. The article begins by outlining findings from a small but growing body of literature focusing on people who identify as asexual, aromantic, and polyamorist, which suggests that these populations face unique challenges and forms of discrimination when navigating their relationships, identity, and community. At the same time, these groups also report negative experiences of psychotherapy, including ignorance, minimization, and lack of understanding empathy on part of therapists. Such gaps may be bridged through cultural and structural changes in the way in which queer-affirmative psychotherapy models are disseminated in training contexts. Building upon models of queer-affirmative psychotherapy, critical theory, and queer theory, the article proposes steps that trainers may take to encourage students to expand their queer-affirmative practice so that it is more inclusive of and responsive to the experiences of asexual, aromantic, and polyamorist populations. The steps involve (a) cultivating criticality among trainees, (b) holding space for "not knowing," (c) providing diverse case examples, and (d) underlining advocacy as central and necessary to queer-affirmative practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).