6 LGBTQ+ Studies
Sunayani Bhattacharya
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to
- Understand and express in writing the key concepts of LGBTQ+ Studies
- Understand and express in writing the relationship between queerness and literacy
Defining LGBTQ+ Studies
For our purposes, LGBTQ+ Studies can be defined as follows:
LGBTQ+ Studies is the field examining questions of sexual orientation and gender identity. The acronym shows the focus of the field—lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer individuals—and the + at the end demonstrates that the field is expansive and can include other identity positions that foreground gender and sexuality. It is an interdisciplinary field that is born of real-life activist movements. While a singular definition of the field is impossible to come by, a good summary of the field’s overall intention is that any discrimination against one’s gender and sexual identity should be resisted. Instead, gender and sexual diversity should be celebrated and taken as objects deserving critical inquiry and scholarship.
If you are interested in learning more about the theoretical framework that underpins this chapter, you could read more about it in Deborah P. Amory’s Introduction to LGBTQ+ Studies: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach. For an intersection of LGBTQ+ Studies and embodied rhetoric, read Caleb Pendygraft’s chapter “Hooking Up Embodied Technologies, Queer Rhetorics, and Grindr’s Grid.”
Breaking It Down
These are the key takeaways for queer theory as a theoretical and practical approach to writing
- Gender and sexual identities operate along a spectrum, and always intersect with other aspects of our identities.
- Gender and sexual identities are often social constructs that masquerade as natural. It is good practice to approach these parts of ourselves as social and culturally determined performances.
- Be mindful of pronouns. This requires more than asking someone their preferred pronouns and respecting those choices–being mindful means that we understand that our pronouns reflect our ability to present ourselves how we choose to, rather than being confined to identity positions.
- Equally important to remember that not all of us have this privilege to choose and present our gender and sexual identities.
- As with all other aspects of our bodies, our gender and sexual identities are also shaped by power relations defining gender and sexual hierarchies. These relations determine which institutions and ideas we might, or might not, have access to.
- Given that we write with our bodies which are implicitly and explicitly marked as gendered and sexualized, all aspects of writing, including composition, interpretation, and communication are affected by the power relations that establish gender and sexual norms.
Watching the Theory in Practice
Watch this video about the largest LGBTQ+ archives in the US. The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles houses material that is meant to draw attention to queer content collected over the course of the twentieth century (view time is 10:16). Note: the video contains some sexually explicit images around the 5.30 – 5.40 time stamp.
Video 6.1. ONE archives by Nottingham Contemporary
Thinking Critically
Having watched this video carefully, think about the aims and scope of this theory, and place it in relation to your own embodied identity.
Invitation to Write:
Take a fresh piece of paper, or open up a new document. Give yourself ten minutes (start a timer) to respond to the following question.
- Why is it important to curate queer content into an official archive?
- What were the most important and interesting things that you learnt from this video?
- What privileges are you granted or denied because of your gender and sexual identities as you move through the world? Remember to think about points where various aspects of your embodied identity intersect.
Queerness and Literacy
How we learn to read and write depends on how our bodies are gendered and sexed in public and private spaces. Consider, for example, the Victorian ideal for female bodies–women could be seen as writing letters to friends and family, but not writing novels or philosophical texts. Not only were they not educated for the latter, their physical spaces were designed such that they could never read or write in isolation. Imagine yourself in the contemporary North American middle and high school sex education class where the difficult question of bodies that do not, or choose not to, occupy gender and sex norms are often glossed over in favor of easily categorizable, mostly heteronormative forms of gender expression. The writing classroom can offer ways of politically and rhetorically intervening into these normative narratives, particularly when you think of reading and writing as tools that can both help you analyze queer texts, but also compose queer texts that subvert established gender and sex conventions.
Writing your gendered and sexed identity
Works Cited
Amory, Deborah P., Sean G. Massey, Jennifer Miller, and Allison P. Brown. Introduction to LGBTQ+ Studies: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach. State University of New York.
Pendygraft, Caleb, “Hooking Up Embodied Technologies, Queer Rhetorics, and Grindr’s Grid,” Bodies of Knowledge: Embodied Rhetorics in Theory and Practice. Eds. A. Abby Knoblauch & Marie E. Moeller. Utah State University Press, 2021.
