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| The queer badge of honor. |
Alexander Doty
This blog was inspired by the late great Dr. Alexander Doty (1954-2012) a pioneering queer film theorist. In his second book, Flaming Classics: Queering the Film Canon he asks how stories might be understood as queer. He demonstrates this with an AWESOME queer reading of The Wizard of Oz "as a fantasy of a teenage girl on the road to dykedom" with Glinda representing the femme and the Wicked Witch of the West as the butch (Doty). Woah. I know, right? You should definitely give it a good read. The chapter is called "My Beautiful Wickedness." Worth it, I promise. You will never watch Oz the same way again. Oh, and that's where the name of the blog came from, duh.
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| Auntie Em? What's a lesbian? |
What is queer?!?
Queer means SO MANY DIFFERENT THINGS! Queer can be very confusing. Trust me, I would know. I'm gonna break it down for you.
"Queer" is most often associated with the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*) community, specifically those who fall somewhere outside the genderbinary of male/female, or are not heterosexual. BUUUUUT (here's where it can be tricky) something that's queer isn't always LGBT. In fact! Something that has LGBT content isn't inherently queer.
Queer is a much bigger umbrella term for anyone/thing/etc that is outside the pervasive norm (white, male, straight, privileged, educated, english-speaking, and able). So that means, yes, LGBT characters are usually queer, but a character who is from a lower class background (*cough* Aladdin *cough*), or is differently abled (*cough* Hunchback *cough*) could be considered queer as well. This kind of queerness outside LGBT individuals is particularly important when talking about intersectionality. While someone who identifies as LGBT might already identify as queer, someone who is female, working class, and a person of color would also be considered queer.
"Queer" is most often associated with the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*) community, specifically those who fall somewhere outside the genderbinary of male/female, or are not heterosexual. BUUUUUT (here's where it can be tricky) something that's queer isn't always LGBT. In fact! Something that has LGBT content isn't inherently queer.
Queer is a much bigger umbrella term for anyone/thing/etc that is outside the pervasive norm (white, male, straight, privileged, educated, english-speaking, and able). So that means, yes, LGBT characters are usually queer, but a character who is from a lower class background (*cough* Aladdin *cough*), or is differently abled (*cough* Hunchback *cough*) could be considered queer as well. This kind of queerness outside LGBT individuals is particularly important when talking about intersectionality. While someone who identifies as LGBT might already identify as queer, someone who is female, working class, and a person of color would also be considered queer.
SO this means that I am not only looking for LGBT shenanigans in kids' entertainment, I'm also looking for different ways stories present any kind of queerness to kids. But I'll be a bit more heavy handed on the LGBT stuff, cause that's my bias.
Want further reading? There's a ton. Pick up anything in the queer theory canon. You should really start with Foucault, but he's a bit dense. I'm partial to Eve Sedgwick and Judith Butler, but I'd also recommend bell hooks (POC feminist stuff), and J. Halberstam (female masculinity). That should give you a good jumping off point.
Ok now we're done with the boring academic-y stuff. Let's get to the juicy bits (btw, did you know that's what they call orange juice pulp in England? Brits are weird).
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