Queer Theory

 Queer Theory

“We’re here. We’re queer.”

Queer Theory emerged as Gay and Lesbian Studies which in turn was the academic wing of the gay rights movement. Literary and cultural studies that focused on sexuality as a key category were an offshoot of a wide. Ranging Social and activist movements through the 1960s and early 1970s. The Stonewall Riots of 1969- provoked when police raided new yorks stonewall tavern a popular eating place for Gays- may be described as the origin of the gay liberation movement. Organization like Gay Liberation Movement (GLM) Gay Activists Aligns (GAA), aids the coalition to unleash power (ACT UP) to sort legal medical social freedom and rights for Gays and Lesbians. Queer theory drew upon the experiences of these movements while adding philosophical and critical insights into the nature of the body. The Geography of sexuality and the question of sexual identity. 

The queer theory looks at the history of cultural representation of the Gay / Lesbian as deviant seek or criminal while foregrounding sexuality as an important category of critical analysis when dealing with cultural text. Queer theory moves quickly to literary analysis and activism because it shows how cultural representation contributes very real material oppression of homosexuals.

Queer Theory Looks at :

1) The general construction of sexuality in discourses of medicine law or religion

2) Popular representation of Gay or Lesbian 

3) The public understanding of alternate sexualities

4) Institutional structures that undergird popular representation of homosexuality.

5) The 'Hidden History of Homosexual writing and representation.

6) The link between sexuality-based oppression and other discriminatory form suggest patriarchy and Racism.

7) The Geography of sexuality with specific reference to the Ghettoization of Gays and Homosexuals

Queer theory seeks to,

1) Destabilize essentializing identities 

2) Racist Heterosexual cultures through carnival transgression and parody.

3) Bent-essimilatinist 

4) Be co-sexual: men and women are on equal footy, the term Queer is now used to mean both Gays and Lesbians.

5) Promote the demand and fight for sexual justice as part of social justice.

6) use the aids crises to reflect on the practice of homosexuality and better aids-driven homo-phobia. 

“💮Be who you are💮”

The Sexual Turn

Criticism uses one or more categories to examine texts. These are usually, gender, race, class, and nationality. Sexuality strangely has been seen as a category that exists only in the form of the men-women relationship. People looking at relationships in the novel or the short story focused only on this kind of sexual relation, passing references or biographical information about authors who seemed to have had extremely close ties with men were ignored or seen as marginal to the main theme and relationship.

The marginalization of the non-heterosexual theme or character in literature was an index of the homosexual relationship in society all over the world. Heterosexuality was a norm and homosexuality was the deviation/perversion that deserved medical treatment and imprisonment.

Michel Foucault and the Discourses of Sexuality

A significant moment in lesbian and gay studies was the work of Michel Foucault, especially in the History of sexuality volumes. Foucault theorized sexuality as located within structures and discourse of power. he was thus able to provide, for the first time, a concerted approach to the so-called natural marginalization of  queer sexuality by arguing that certain forms of sexuality were constructed as unnatural and evil and its practitioners placed under surveillance.

• the sexuality of children was subordinated to that of adults , who were to monitor any 'preversions' like masturbation .
• a list of preversions began to be formulated . the homosexual was now a symbol of disorder .
• a medicalization of sexuality was on as doctor and scientists sought to provide a pathological basis for pervesions. 
•  a comparatmentalization of sexualities begin to be visible. sex was restricted to cwrtain ages , relationship,times and spaces. age ,practice , relationships and space . sexuality outside these norms was identified as prrvesion and illness. 

Gay pasts, gay futures 

Gay and lesbian writing now constitute a substantial body of work. Extensive critical writing on the area and institutional presences from sociology literary studies cultural studies psychology and history. 

past texts and future politics 

Central to the project of queer theory is the retrieval of gay and lesbian pasts in the form of history, autobiographies, memories, and fiction queer therapists argue, as we have seen, that mainstream literary culture has effectively reduced gay-lesbian presences from canon. margrate crukshank writes. 

we feel a special regen about the work of lesbian studies because so much of our past has been lost. Sometimes editors and biographers hid the truth, and sometimes families destroyed evidence of lesbian Herstory Archives were actually rescued from trash cans on New York City Sidewalks.

Retrieving gay-lesbian texts is central to queer studies because it provides a history of not only queer pasts but also to the modes of exclusion that have ensured the marginalization of the queer.

 Queer Subcultures

Along with the political reading of queer texts or queer readings of apparently heterosexist texts a key element in queer studies today is an exploration of queer subcultures.

Queer theory suggests that gay-lesbians culture can be seen as a subculture to the heterosexual mainstream one.  Camp, drag , transvestitism and cross-dressing are modes of subcultures. cross-dressing deglamorized the ultra-feminine stars andmasquerade draws attention to the role playing and constructed masculinity of the body. Such subcultures appropriate the icons , signs and aura of the mainstream culture to.. 

a) Show their constructedness 

b) Subvert them as icons of carnival

c) highlight the gayor lesbian angle to masquerade.

Bulter's theory of gender and the subject treats the subject as a process, a performative act where gender "occurs" only through therepitition of particular acts- and argument that suggests the subject is never a stable cogent entity.

Queer Dispora

In terms of popular culture and mass media culture the queer is already all over the world. Movies like Philadelphia and Fire now have global audiences . Is there a global queer linkage that makes such films popular? and if so ,how or why is it important in terms of a new politics of sexuality and race?

In many cases , as illustrated by Hanif Kureishi , Shyam Selvadurai, Suniti Namjoshi and Leela Gandhi , migration enables the asian or black queer to escape the claustrophobia of their original home/nation.

Queer theory now accounts for transnational identities and linkages. Grewal and Kalpan arue that the efforts of contemporary sexuality studies ignore the histories of diverse political economies and forms of governmentality. We need to look at form of gender and sexual differences in medieval china and Islam in order to understand the subject positions today. One more crucial dimension to a transitional queer identity that builds communities across racial identities exists in global tourism. Men and Women from 'First World nations travel to 'third World nations to alternate sexual experiences. Queer identity has become a consumer product in the age of global tourism. Once again race and sexuality are closely aligned: and, as always, favors the white gay or lesbians over dark-skinned ones. 

A Few LGBT icons we need to know about them

Until 2018, homosexuality was illegal and punishable in India. Although the draconian law, which demanded up to life imprisonment for anyone committing sexual acts “against the order of nature”, was scrapped four years ago, a truly inclusive society remains a distant dream. The LGBTQ+ community still faces stigma, violence, and legal difficulties. However, some of the country’s most famous personalities, from sports to the film industry and media to business, are trying to change the status quo.

1) Prince manavendra singh Gohil

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil is India’s first openly gay royal. An exceptional ambassador of the LGBTQ+ community, Gohil knew he was gay since he was 12, but had to stay in the closet for decades. By the time he came out at 41, Gohil had endured shock therapy, conversion therapy, forced marriage to a woman, and expulsion from his inheritance. His revelation about his sexuality triggered a nationwide scandal as homosexuality was illegal in India in 2006.

Though the backlash must have been traumatizing and depressing, it did not stop him from living his true self and advocating for LGBTQ+ rights through his charity Lakshya Trust. In 2018, when India’s Supreme Court decriminalized homosexuality, Gohil opened up 15 acres of palace grounds to build a shelter for vulnerable gay and transgender people.
Today, he is fighting for issues like same-sex marriage, the right to inheritance, the right to adoption and a ban on conversion therapy.

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