Sunday, November 06, 2005
My first post
Well, this is my first blog. I don't know what I am going to do with it exactly. I am sure many are probably curious as to why I chose the name. Since a lot of my research in school revolves around issues of queerness and gender (within literature and culture) I have noticed that there is a certain amount of commodification that has incarnated itself within queerness. Theory and practice, both together and separate, seem to reflect this situation. Since I identify as a queer(ed) body I am struck by this phenomenon. Queerness seems to be gaining a certain type of "catch word" status within the academy (as well as popular culture) and with that status comes a certain amount of codes and categorical violence that forces bodies to fit under certain rubrics of queerness. Queerness doesn't necessarily refer to sexuality per se but encompasses many aspects of marginality. It's a position of analysis that places the examiner on the outside looking in. A difficult position to be sure but one that is being eroded through capitalism and intellectual profitability. It seems to me that queer now requires a body to act and behave in certain ways and to direct its queerness within certain directions. I am constantly being criticized for not following certain codes of queerness by others who identify as such. I don't easily assimilate within any type of discourse community normal, queer, or otherwise because I think issues of community should always be rigorously challenged and questioned from a site of queerness. This position questions not only heteronormativity but also, and at the same time, queer communities of practice. Anytime the "I" takes upon itself the criteria that establishes it within the purview of a universal "we" there is always an amount of queering that is taking place. I am interested in what goes into these (As Wendy Brown terms it) "wounded attachments." There are voices that are always being silenced in any kind of community. I am interested in the terms of these silences that transcend the "normal" binary of good/bad (and this binary's [and yes, I'm giving this term a certain amount of agency] multiple linguistic forms). I want to interrogate what gets silenced (a form of double queerning within a queer community for the sake of political formation, the "we" if you will) and WHO gets to decide. If you think about it...this gets one into a lot of trouble and often the one who asks these questions is the one who finds him/herself pushed into the corners. I realize that I am rambling at this point but as I work through issues of intellection and my own personal life within this blog I will hopefully be able to parse through issues of queer(ed) subjectivity and procure some sense of meaning on both political and personal levels.
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4 comments:
I don't fit in either. We can be gay outcasts together. I am not butch enough to "read" as lesbian and not girly enough to be "misread" as straight. I could care less, to be honest, until someone makes it my problem by talking shit about me, or saying I'm not really a lesbian, blah, blah, politics, blah. It really makes you question identity politics, I think. You'd think a community that constantly gets boxed into stereotypes would embrace those who resist them, but no. I've never understood that hypocrisy.
I love the term queer because for me, it bypasses all the questions of "What is he/she/it? Are you gay/straight/bi?" For many these questions are not answerable because we are all of these things, and at time, none. The problem I have with the word queer is that it means differently depending on who one says it to. I could tell Oren I am queer and he understands and already knows, but to use the word among certain family members, friends, and aquaintances causes too much misunderstanding and frankly unnecessary gossip about my sexuality, which even I don't understand. But then again, those misunderstandings can be funny and lead to growth, or . . . well, they can be pretty hellish as well. Being a children's lit person, I like the way queer is used in Alice in Wonderland. Certainly many queers can never escape the wimsey and horror of Wonderland. Disoriented and consistantly changing, we are never able to establish stable subjectivities. For queers, no matter what group we try to enter things are always "curiousier and curiousier." And as frustrating as that can be, as Oren points out, it is also necessary.
Oren, I'm so happy that you started a blog, and such a thought-provoking one, too! You are light years ahead of me in thinking on this issue. I'm interested to see how your beliefs about queerness translate into teaching behaviors. Have you thought about writing your pedagogy comp synthesis on queer pedagogy?
where's your second blog entry, fool?
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