Applying Queer Theory

Now that you know some of the basic concepts involved with queer theory, you can
think about reading cultural product/text (fiction, film, television shows) using that
lens. You certainly do not have to examine a text about queer people. You can use
queer theory to critique or examine any text.

Some analytics to think about:

1. How is this text displaying heteronormativity or resistance to it?

2. Examine a character and read her or him as queer? What is the character doing
that defies the norm? What is the struggle or pleasure in being deviant?
3. If a character has a queer identity, how does that identity correspond with other
ways in which the character sees her self? For instance, is her race, class, religion,
age, or national origin fundamental to her self-image, her struggle, or her resistance
to oppression? How is the life of say a black queer character the same or different as
a white counterpart?
4. How are queers forming communities in the text? Look for examples outside the
stereotypical places and spaces. Do some subcultures provide a feeling of comfort
for many types of societal outsiders?
5. How does a queer character perform his or her queerness? Think about: dress,
drag, expressions, musical taste, habits, favorite places, friendships, patterns,
actions, attractions and revulsions…
6. How are characters in a film monitoring, policing, or harassing another character
for being non-normative in his or her gender performance or sexual orientation.
7. How are the choices and life direction for a queer character different than if she
or he were straight? Speculate on the different routes that queerness takes a
person.
8. How do people or color, women, immigrants, or poor people face similar
challenges as a queer person would, in the text you are examining?
9. How do characters in the same text switch gender roles based on the situation?
10. Is there a queer character in the text that is “in the closet”? What does that
character do to cope?
11. Is the queerness of a character or scene based on its setting, geography, or time
period? What is it like to be queer in a place that is stereotypically known as not
accepting, such as a rural community or a religious family? Does anything in the
story complicate that stereotype?
12. In a story without any queer characters, how is gender and sexuality acted out?
What would be the same or different in this narrative if there were a queer
character(s)? Even if all the characters are straight, is all of the sexuality
“normative” or is there more complexity than on the surface?
13. How does a character disidentify (reject) with queerness, stereotypes, or
expectations of their sexual orientation or gender?
For further reading:

Introductory:
Annmarie Jagose, Queer Theory: An Introduction

More difficult:

Judith Butler, Gender Trouble

Judith Butler, Undoing Gender
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality Vol. 1, An Introduction
Jose Munoz, Disidentifications: Queer of Color and the Performance of Politics
Roderick Ferguson, Aberrations in Black: Towards a Queer of Color Critique
Judith Halberstam, In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives