Subject: Re: gender: more on del
From: Jane Park (janepark@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 15 1999 - 22:02:01 CDT
hey emily,
here's how i read the g-a-y vs. queer statement. g-a-y as trying to
assimilate into the mainstream, het lifestyle (marriage, military, etc.) and
by doing so, affirming and reproducing the straight hegemony; queer as
questioning the structure/system that produces this desire (to assimilate)
in the first place. i remember in my last queer theory class, we debated the
difference between gay/lesbian and queer a lot, especially when we were
reading butler and stuff on performativity and drag--and later when we were
wondering what the hell 'queer' meant anyway, the political and/or
theoretical potential (if any) of queer theory, why we were doing it, etc..
i mean, g-a-y (in del's terms or in general terms--as in the gay and lesbian
movements and their history) is easier to define, politically, right? you
can agitiate for your 'right' to marriage and other legal institutions, you
can agitate against discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or
preference--but this assumes that our goal is equality, which is a concept
coming out of 'democracy' and which has often meant erasing or devaluing
difference...what queer theory tries to do (ostensibly) is destabilize that
idea by playing with it and taking it apart. i suspect that a structure
exists for this, too--or gets produced constantly; you can't really
destabilize anything unless you yourself are stable--standing in a
particular space (i.e you have a position)--even if it's only for a few
seconds. i wonder if it's about time, then and if so, how that's linked to
identity. maybe i'm not making sense. i apologize.
i'm not defending del, btw. his talk was really confusing for me on many
levels, and a lot of it shocked me, too (though not as much as when i heard
him speak the first time, after his screening at the film festival.
incidentally, for those of you who went to that--what was up with putting
queer people on a higher evolutionary scale than straight people? my friend
was fuming, and i didn't really know what to think. i mean, was that a joke?
or what?).
have a good night, everyone.
jane
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