Growing Into Power

Having had a very limited understanding of “queerness” and queer theory before opening up Jagose’s Queer Theory book and joining this class, I can only hope to understand the dilemma behind the term “queer” through my own experiences in marginalization. Within many movements for liberation and social recognition there has been an understanding that existing language that was imposed on marginalized communities can be limiting and used as a tool to ensure the invisibility of the community. During the Chicano movement activist and youth organizers resisted the term “Hispanic” as imposed by the US census by adopting the term Chicano. The reason why I draw on similarity among the creation of this term is because Chicano was a term that was appropriated in resistance to oppressive structures by not allowing structures of power to normalize their identity and erase a history in oppression just as the term queer is attempting to do. Though critiques of elitism and privilege are also a part of the history of the term Chicano. 


The imposition of gendered binaries has been limiting and oppressive in understanding our shared lived experiences on this world. These binaries have excluded and erased individuals and communities in our past and our existing present. In Maggie Nelsons book The Argonauts she shares her partners experience in exclusion, “I will never feel as free as you do, I will never feel as at home in the world, I will never feel as at home in my own skin.” For those who do not securely fit into either side of the gendered norms it may seem as if the “world” was not made for them. Those whose physical body parts do not align with the predetermined standard that have been imposed by those in power pose a threat to maintaining the notion that gendered spaces are essential to the order of our society.

The gender binary is also limiting in understanding our desires and attractions to others. In attempting to define homosexuality Jagose states, “While there is a certain population of men and women who may be described more or less unproblematically as homosexual, a number of ambiguous circumstances cast doubt on the precise delimitations of homosexuality as a descriptive category.” In understanding the laws of attraction, it can be very limiting to think only within the confines of gender. In her blog Elizabeth Sherman relates to author Maggie Nelson’s sentiment that “’whatever sameness’ she encounters in her relationships with women is not that of gender.” By imposing the categorization of sexuality as either homosexual or heterosexual, individuals are met with pressure to fit rigidly within the confines of that identity. Nelson describes her attraction as that of “the shared, crushing understanding of what it means to live in a patriarchy.” Terms such as homosexual and heterosexual are limiting because they allow us to understand and explore our desires only within the confines of gendered bodies.

While organizing our society around gender binaries has become common place and is rarely questioned, post-structuralist and queer activist/theorist assert that the gender binary is far from the “natural” order of the world. In Jagose’s Queer Theory structural linguist, Ferdanand de Saussure, in 1906-11 challenges us to question the ways in which language has affected “our notions of a private, personal and interior self.” Saussure is arguing that our self-identity is continuously influenced by language.

Queer writer, Hel Gebreamlak, describes her experience in learning gender identity, “I learned masculinity last. I say learned, not because it isn’t who I truly am, but because no gender expression or identity, no matter how normative or queer it is, is expressed without the world’s interpretation in mind.”  Gebreamlak recognizes that while masculinity and femininity are learned expressions of identity, the expression of “queer” is also influenced by the worlds interpretation of the world even if it a term that attempts to escape the limits of language,

Jagose defends the claim that queer identity is not grounded in one specific definition and therefore is “stretching the boundaries of identity categories”. She also goes on to express that this ambiguity has caused much unrest among the LGBTQ community. The gay and lesbian community have expressed concern over the ambiguity of the term queer and what that means for their communities. Gay activist Stephen Jones expresses his reluctance in identifying with the term due to the fact that he is “not confident that we yet have a common understanding of queer politics and culture.” Ambiguity may not always be most desirable especially when your community is trying to lead a movement against powerful structures that have historically oppressed them.

Comparing to my own struggles with marginalization and oppression, it seems to me that members of the LGBTQ community are fearful of a term that has the power to once again erase their struggle. “Stretching the boundaries of identity categories,” as Jagose puts it, does not sound so appealing when there are those who have faced real struggles with marginalization and social rejection. If the term continues to expand to be inclusive of all, even those who have held power and privilege in respect to gendered and sexual identity, those who have faced real struggles in oppression risk being erased even within their own movement.

Despite this anxiety it seems to me that in recent years there has been a shift in the LGBTQ community to be more comfortable with the political and social potential of the term queer. Gebreamlak expresses optimism in the adaptable nature of the term, she says, “The queer community’s image will change to show it isn’t a white, Western fad. But image, as an expositive tool, will never stop mattering. It will only move.” Gebreamlak is confident that the term queer is actively moving to take power away from the Western imperial powers that she says introduced the oppressive structure of gendered binaries. While she acknowledges that the image of queerness is ambiguous and changing, she is confident that it is moving into a place of power to obstruct structures of oppression and to liberate those who deserve it the most.