328 STEVEN SEIDMAN
Queer theory questions the
very grounds of identity.Queer theory argues that...There is no such thing as “normal” sexuality....sexuality is
a social
construct....there is
no original
on which gender
is based....few “men”
or “women” fit
neatly into the
binary sex
system.IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Queer theoryKEY DATES
1976 Michel Foucault’s work
The History of Sexuality.
Volume I: An Introduction
traces the social construction
of sexuality; he sees sexual
identities emerging through
history and produced by
power, and thus not based
on nature or biology.1987 ACT UP (AIDS Coalition
to Unleash Power) forms in
New York as a response to
homophobic AIDS campaigns.1990 In Gender Trouble,
Judith Butler argues that
gender is socially constructed
and produced from actions
and behaviors that are
constantly repeated.1998 US academic Judith
(“Jack”) Halberstam examines
masculinity without men in
Female Masculinity.I
n the early 1980s, the AIDS
crisis was wrongly identified
in the public mind as an
epidemic that mainly affected gay
men. The resultant health panic
and growth of homophobia made
the lesbian and gay community
feel isolated and marginalized.
Politically activist gay men and
lesbians responded by originating
“queer” politics and theory, trying
to deprive the term “queer” of its
derogatory power. As a reverse
affirmation of a pejorative word,
“queer” is still a contentious term
for some. In its widest sense it
includes any category that debunks
the heterosexual male–female
“natural” model—not just gays
and lesbians, but transgendered
people, cross-dressers, and others,
including heterosexuals who reject
the “norm.”
Queer theory and its political
approach has grown out of feminist
and lesbian and gay theory.
Influenced by Michel Foucault
and Judith Butler, the key queer
theorists, such as Eve Kosofsky
Sedgwick, Gayle Rubin, and Steven
Seidman, have disrupted traditional
unitary identity—or social—categories, believing that the
differences within categories such
as “woman” or “gay” undermine
their usefulness. Queer theory,
like some feminist theory, was
also initially critical of the lesbian
and gay communities, which were
seen as assimilationist—seeking
to enter the mainstream by
campaigning for things such as
marriage rights.Constructed sexuality
Steven Seidman is an important
figure in the history of queer
thinking due to his interpretation