1. Derived from the Latin TORQUERE – ‘to twist’ Odd, strange, out of place An insult, i.e. queer as a term of abuse Reclaimed as a positive identification Umbrella term for various sexualities Popularisation of Queer – Queer as Folk; Queer Eye for the Straight Guy; etc.

2. Gay and Lesbian Studies Gay and Lesbian Activism Feminist Theory Queer Theory Queer Studies Queer Activism Transgender Theory

3. Gay and Lesbian Studies

6. Rainbow-throned immortal one, Aphrodite, Child of Zeus, spell-weaver, I bow before thee --- Harrow not my spirit with anguish, mighty Queen, I implore thee! Nay, come hither, even as once thou, bending Down from far to hearken my cry, didst hear me, From the Father's palace of gold descending Drewest anear me Chariot wafted: far over midnight-sleeping Earth, they fair fleet sparrows, through cloudland riven Wide by tumultuous wings, came sweeping Down from thy heaven, Swittly came: thou, smiling wt those undying Lips and star-eyes, Blessed One, smiling me-ward, Said'st, "What ails thee? --- wherefore uprose thy crying Calling me thee-ward? Say for what boon most with a frenzied longing Yearns thy soul --- say whom shall my glamour chaining Hale thy love's thrall, Sappho --- and who is wronging Thee with disdaining? Who avoids thee soon shall be thy pursuer: Aye, the gift-rejecter the giver shall now be: Aye, the loveless shall now become the wooer, Scornful shalt thou be!" Once again come! Come, and my chains dissever, Chains of heart-ache! Passionate longings rend me --- Oh fulfil them! Thou in the strife be ever Near, to defend me.

8. Gay and Lesbian Studies and Activism

9. Feminist Theory

10. QUEER NATION 1990 – “In calling ourselves Queer we take back a name that has been used as a weapon against us, and turn it into a symbol of our power and our pride”

11. “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” (Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex 1949, p. 267) “Womanliness as Masquerade” (Joan Riviere, 1929)

12. Jagose, A. (1996). Queer theory: An introduction. New York: University Press. Broadly speaking, queer describes those gestures or analytical models which dramatise incoherences in the allegedly stable relations between chromosomal sex, gender and sexual desire. Resisting that model of stability—which claims heterosexuality as its origin, when it is more properly its effects—queer focuses on mismatches between sex, gender and desire (p. 3)

13. GENDER:MasculineFeminine SEX:MaleFemale DESIRE: Heterosexual desire Heterosexual desire

14. GENDER SEX DESIRE

15. GENDER: Masculine/Feminine SEX:FemaleMale DESIRE:Same-sex desireSame-sex desire

16. GENDER: Butch-femme, Queer, Trans, Boi SEX: Female, Queer TTransgender, Male DESIRE: Queer desire

19. The invention of heterosexuality & The invention of homosexuality

23. Judith/Jack Halberstam Professor at the University of Southern California

24. Judith Butler’s ‘performatives’ It’s girl!’ – gender needs to be named categories of identity are cultural and social productions your gender is created by your acts so: a man or a woman is not what one is but something one does, a condition one enacts repeated acts depend on social conventions Gender is a fiction. We are not ‘really’ ‘women’ and ‘men’ – we just enact maleness and femaleness

25. “In imitating gender, drag implicitly reveals the imitative structure of gender itself – as well as its contingency” (Butler, 2001, p. 75)

26. Heteronormativity: “the institutions, structures of understanding, and practical orientation that make heterosexuality not only coherent—that is, organised as a sexuality—but also privileged” (Berlant, L. & Warner, M. (1998). Sex in public. Critical Inquiry 25 (2): p. 565, fn. 2)

27. “Acknowledging the inevitable violence of identity politics and having no stake in its own hegemony, queer is less an identity than a critique of identity” (Jagose, para. 12, 1996)

28. Different from... Lesbian, gay and bisexual studies Which seek to make the mainstream more accepting of marginal lesbian and gay lifestyles – but in doing so reproduce binary distinction between heterosexuality as the ‘normal’ and homosexuality as the ‘other’ Queer Theory queers the mainstream – showing it not to be ‘normal’ at all.

29. Different from... Feminist approaches of the time Which tended to reproduce the binaries between ‘men and ‘women’ Queer Theory aims to break down these differences and show that the categories of ‘woman’ and ‘man’ are artificial and not rigid binaries.

30. What can we learn from queer theory?  Helps us see forces of gender and heterosexuality organizing many parts of our life beyond our intimate sexual lives: schools, jobs, economies.  Important to study the centre and not just the margins. The focus in not just on, for example, lesbian and gay people but on all people’s gendered and sexual performances.  We need to think seriously and critically about gender and not just take it for granted – this can be hard as we are all invested in the gender order and cannot escape it even if we choose to be critical of it.  Identities are not fixed but constructed, fluid and transitive.  Political action has the potential to be transformative by doing things that expose the vulnerability of apparently powerful institutions like heterosexuality.  Rather than just focusing on civil rights strategies, queer tactics involve carnival, transgression, play, and humour.

31. Criticisms  Theoretical work can be abstract - accused of being elitist.  Erasure of gender? What about real gender inequalities?  By using Queer as a gender neutral term it is possible that lesbian and bisexual experiences will be ignored or subsumed under gay male experiences  Neglects the material conditions of people’s lives.  Takes social constructionism too far?