SOCI 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Queer Theory, Social Constructionism, Sexual Identity
3 May 2018
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Queer Theory and Gender Continua (Part 1) CNTD
- Sexuality in part constitutes gender
- EX: Sexual identity is feminized or masculinized.
- How might gender be sexualized?
- EX: Women are seen as sexually passive, submissive. Binarized
understandings of gender (passive vs. submissive)
- What does it mean by “Gender is accomplished?”
- Gender is performed through symbolic representations
- Butler→ repeated acts. Engaging or embodying gender over time, you
establish a sense of your self and identity.
- Gendered beings created through a process of repudiation and citation
- Who you are is also who you are not
- You can positively define masculinity in terms of what it is and also negatively
describe what it is not (it’s not feminine, homosexual. So ideals of references
of masculinity)
Queer Theory
- No longer silent: public sexual conflicts and social movements
- Postwar context
- Feminist activism and sexual politics
- Focus on porn, sex work for the first time
- Critical engagements with heterosexuality vs. homosexuality
and specifically discussing the family, work, and marriage as
heterosexual institutions (Sites for socialization and training for
specific sexuality)
- Counter-cultural movements
- Inserting sex into public discourses
- Social change and rebellion in the 1960s was linked→ more
freedom in engaging in sexuality, expressing it publicly was
linked to social change
- Sexual freedom = social freedom
- Sexual liberation = political liberation
- Rise of homosexual subcultures and challenges to discourses of
homosexuality
- Gay male subcultures for the most part
- Paradigm shifts in gay and lesbian politics
- Challenge to idea of ‘natural’ sexual identity
- Rejection of homosexuality that started to emerge as if
homosexuality was a trans-historical and historical type (“The
Gays” → homogenous category where everyone had the same
desires)
- Shift towards social constructionist thinking about sexuality
- “Modern categories of sexuality, most importantly, those of
heterosexual and homosexuality, are understood as social and
historical creations” (Seidman, 1996: 8)
Document Summary
Queer theory and gender continua (part 1) cntd. Ex: sexual identity is feminized or masculinized. Ex: women are seen as sexually passive, submissive. What does it mean by gender is accomplished? . Engaging or embodying gender over time, you establish a sense of your self and identity. Gendered beings created through a process of repudiation and citation. You can positively define masculinity in terms of what it is and also negatively describe what it is not (it"s not feminine, homosexual. No longer silent: public sexual conflicts and social movements. Focus on porn, sex work for the first time. Critical engagements with heterosexuality vs. homosexuality and specifically discussing the family, work, and marriage as heterosexual institutions (sites for socialization and training for specific sexuality) Social change and rebellion in the 1960s was linked more freedom in engaging in sexuality, expressing it publicly was linked to social change. Rise of homosexual subcultures and challenges to discourses of homosexuality.
