The Dilemma with Using Queer

How can I, as a white cisgender young woman, possibly be able to answer the question whether or not the use of the term queer is an appropriate and powerful identifier for the LGBT community and their fight for justice?

In my humble opinion, well actually not-so humble opinion, I cannot.

I cannot because I come from a powered and privileged place where I can use the term queer to categorize the other, and to be quite honest that is absolutely not something that I want to do or support.

But, I can explain the difficulty I have with the word queer. Its use is very widespread; it is used by those members of the LGBTQ community who have reclaimed it to both empower and identify, it is used by educated individuals to better understand what LGBTQ is in a society that focuses only on a binary system, and it is often used wrongfully by those in positions of power to categorize the other creating powerful societal tensions that are reaching a breaking point in the current sphere of gender and sexuality.

The difficulty for me in answering this question is, as I reflected on before, that I come from a background of privilege in my whiteness and straightness and my education has allowed me to identify my own opinions on the use and importance of the term queer. However, I believe it is safe to say that a rather large populous of the United States of America has not grappled with the term queer, and if they have, it has been used possibly incorrectly or perhaps even as an insult. So, queer tends to be more exclusive than inclusive.

Now, this idea might be challenging as one of the essential uses of the word queer has been as a so-called umbrella term in which all non-conforming people to societal binaries of sex and gender can be located. According to queer theorist Annamarie Jagose, “queer posits a commonality between people which does not disallow their fundamental difference” (112). This idea then surrounds the word queer that there is an inherent sameness in those who identify with it yet their differences are still valuable. Understanding this, queer when used in this manner is positive and people who find themselves rejecting the system of identity that society has placed on them can use it to ultimately choose to identify with. This can be empowering and foster a place of justice.

However, I argue that this ideal queer definition is not the definition of queer that enough individuals have access to in society today for it to be inclusive. Therefore, it is wrongfully exclusive. One problem I have is that queer is a movement that is predominately headed and represented by white men. It can be seen as a way of, “furthering the masculinist agenda” (117). This then leaves the voice of women out, but perhaps even more importantly, it also does not encompass individuals that choose NOT to identify within the binaries of gender. Even more frustrating, people of color also have a lack of representation in queer theory. Is this not one of the main components of this ideal queer definition?

Other individuals and members of the LGBTQ community have discussed the problem with queer exclusivity and elitism. In an online magazine I Don’t Do Boxes, Daniel Copulsky writes an essay on, “The Queer Umbrella”. He explains, “Queer is an identity that validates my lived experience… I also feel threatened by the possibility that the word could change too…But there is something problematic about wanting a word to grow just inclusive enough for myself and then stop without letting others in as well." This is an example of how people who identify as queer can even be exclusive to other members of the community. Queer has changed meaning multiple times in society. First it was a harmful slur, then it was reclaimed and made positive, yet it still can be used by the wrong individual in the wrong way, and it does not include all the people it is theoretically is supposed to. With this instability the word is not readily available to be properly used in its ideal context. Furthermore, it is exclusive because individuals who do not know about this discourse around it and who do not discuss these issues cannot appropriately use it either.

So, this is the problem that I have with the term queer and frankly, although it has its positives, there is still much work to be done in tweezing out its proper use and definition.

My final example that I want to leave with you comes from a poem. In a TEDTalk by Lee Mokobe, he performs a powerful slam poem about what it feels like to be transgender. In one line he powerfully testifies, “No one ever thinks us as human because we are more ghost than flesh, because people fear my gender expression is a trick, that it exists to be perverse… that my body is a feast for their eyes and hands and once they have fed off my queer, they’ll regurgitate the parts they don’t like."

Here, queer is what is used by those with power. I could use it as a white cisgender young woman to categorize Mokobe and hold him separate from myself. I have the power to take in the parts of him that I like, make a spectacle of him to society, and then reject everything else about him that I do not because of my straightness and my whiteness. How is that even slightly just?

This is the problem I have with the term queer.

This is why I will not use the term queer.


References
Copulsky, Daniel. “The Queer Umbrella.” I Don’t Do Boxes. I Don’t Do Boxes Mag., Web. 12 Sep. 2015.


Jagose, Annamarie. Queer Theory: An Introduction. New York: New York UP, 1996. Print.

Mokobe, Lee. “Lee Mokobe: A Powerful Poem About What it Feels Like to be Transgender.” Online video clip. TED. TED Conferences, LLC, May 2015. Web. 12 Sep. 2015.

Links

Daniel Copulsky's Essay
Lee Mokobe's Ted Talk