Queer Theory
Queer Theory Activity
Starting with your own analysis of the changing use of the word ‘gay’ explore the ways in which popular cultural practices police the boundaries between gender categories.
Draw up and discuss a list of celebrities whose sexual identity could be described as ‘fluid’ or unfixed.
To me the word ‘gay’ has changed over time. Remembering first encountering the word to mean homosexual only to discover it was hijacked by the gay community. The word had previously been considered to mean ‘happy’, as in ‘have a gay day’. Moving on from happy to mean homosexual from happy I’ve learnt was so the gay community might be seen in a more favourable light. The word has also gone on in some circles to mean ’stupid’ or ‘thick’ and in a bizarre way ‘immature’.
This does give rise to the suggestion that the shift in meaning is a way to police the boundaries of gender categories by trying to re-establish the binary oppositions that underlie the outdated ideas about sexuality. In reference to Freud’s psychoanalysis of gender identification Judith Butler asserts in her book Gender Trouble (1990) that “heterosexual melancholy is culturally instituted as the price of stable gender identities” and for heterosexuality to remain stable, it demands the notion of homosexuality, which remains prohibited but necessarily within the bounds of culture.
Lindsay Lohan
There’s no doubting LiLo likes the ladies, as her tumultuous relationship with DJ Samantha Ronson proved. But she’s not turned her back on the male race quite yet, despite having Aaron Carter and Calum Best among her ex-boyfriends.
“I appreciate people, and it doesn’t matter who they are, and I feel blessed to be able to feel comfortable enough with myself that I can say that.”
http://www.metro.co.uk/bisexual
Bisexual chic is a phrase sometimes used to describe the public acknowledgement of bisexuality among various segments of society. In some cases the phrase can be considered pejorative, when used to trivialize or dismiss genuine feelings of same-sex attraction, especially if those expressing these thoughts continue to exhibit otherwise hetero-normative behaviours.
One Question with One Answer.
Q: Who said, ‘There remains a great deal of scope for the mass media to be much more challenging’ in relation to the changing tide of the media and the ambiguity of the ‘all man’ and ‘all woman’ celebrity persona?
A: David Gauntlett, 2002
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