QUEER THEORY
To explore key theoretical ideas and apply to music videos study
What is Queer Theory;
Ideas based around the idea of identities that are not fixed
Its meaningless to talk in general about "woman" or any other group - identities consist of so many elements to assume people can be seen collectively based on the shared characteristics is wrong
we challenge all notions of fixed identity, in varied and non-predictable ways
Queer theory is based on the work of Judith Bulter
Is mistaken that queer theory is another name for lesbian and gay studies.
Butler argued that feminism had made a mistake by trying to assert that woman were a group with common characteristics and interests
Butler said, performed 'an unwitting regulation and reification of gender relations - reinforcing a binary view of gender relations in which human beings are divided into two clear-cut groups, woman and men
Rather than opening up possibilities for a person to form and choose their own individual identity, therefore, feminism had closed the options down.
Butler nots feminists reject the idea of biology is destiny, however it develops an account of patriarchal culture which assumed that masculine and feminine genders would inevitably be built, by culture, upon 'male' and 'female' bodies, making the same destiny just as inescapable.
Bulter prefers 'those historical and anthropological positions that understand gender as a relation among socially constituted subjects in specifiable contexts
rather being a fixed attribute in a person, gender should be seen as a fluid variable which shifts and changes in different contexts and at different times.
the fact that women and men can say that they feel more or less 'like a woman' or 'like a man' shows, Butler points out, that 'the experience of a gendered. cultural identity is considered an achievement,'
Bulter argues that sex(male,female) is seen to cause gender (masculine, feminine) which is seen to cause desire (towards the other gender). - seen as kind of continuum.
Butter's approach - inspired in part by Foucault - is basically to smash the supposed links between these, so that gender and desire are flexible, free-floating and not 'caused' by other stable factors.
Queer Theory explores and challenges the way in which heterosexuality is constructed as normal.
and the way in which the media has limited representations of gay and woman.
It suggests sexual identity is more fluid than fixed
examples of media celebrities: Grayson Perry, Eddie Izzard, Boy Geroge (voice judge), Iussle Brand, Jack Sparrow, Noel Fielding, Tom Daley.
Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean)
- an ironic and over the top performance
- overly elaborated costume and eye make-up
- uses feminine and camp gestures
- not what we would consider "macho".
Butler says; "there is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; identity is performatively constituted by the very 'expressions' that are said to be its results.
gender is a performance; its what you do at particular times, rather than a universal who you are.
certain cultural configurations of gender have seized a hegemonic hold (i.e they have come to seem natural in our culture as it presently is) - but , Bulter suggests, it doesn't have to be that way. Rather than proposing some utopian vision, with no idea of how we might get to such a state, Butler calls for subversive action in the present: 'gender trouble'- the mobilization , subversive confusion, and proliferation of genders - and therefore identity.
Butler argues we all put on a gender performance, whether traditional or not.
by choosing to be different about it, we might work to change gender norms and the binary understanding of masculinity and femininity
identity of free-floating, as not connected to an 'essence', but instead a performance is one of the key ideas in queer theory.
our identities, gendered and otherwise, do not express some authentic inner 'core' self but are the dramatic effect (rather than the cause) of our performances.
David Halperin has said, 'queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate the dominant.
There is nothing in particular to which it necessarily refers. it is an identity without an essence.'
Summary of Butlers Ideas
- suggests gender is not the result of nature, but is socially constructed.
- male and female behaviour roles are not the result of biology but are constructed and reinforced by society through media and culture.
- sees gender as a PERFORMANCE.
- she argues that there are a number of exaggerated representations of masculinity and femininity which cause - gender trouble
Gender trouble
- in gender trouble (1990), butler argued that feminism had made a mistake by trying to assert that 'woman' were a group with common characteristics and interest .
- its not (necessarily) just a view on sexuality, or gender.
- it also suggests that the confines of any identity can potentially be reinvented by its owner...
- with this in mind, madonna is a great example to justify gender trouble due to her woman empowerment and contant image change and also her open views on her sexuality , who is arguably an embodiment of Queer Theory.
