Dolores González Ortega

Road Map- Queer theory: an introduction (Jagose)

Jagose’s book Queer theory: an introduction maps the mobility of the term “queer” and presents
the history of some of the categories that are related to it such as sexual practices, desire and
identity. At the same time, it describes the implications that its use has had in the field of politics
as well as in the emergence of queer theory and gender studies.
At the beginning of the book, the author addresses the issues regarding the first definitions of
homosexuality as same-sex desire. The problem with focusing only in same-sex desire to discuss
sexual orientation is that it implicates ignoring the interaction of other components such as desire
(what someone wants to do), practices (what people actually do) and people’s self-identification
which, in most cases, don’t constitute a coherent and recognizable unity. In this section, the author
also explains the historicity of the term “homosexual” studied by Foucault, who traced its first
apparition in the nineteenth century within the field of medicine and psychiatry studies. The word
that was supposed to describe an existing identity was actually used to create one while
pathologizing certain male behaviors and desires. At the same time, this new way of identification
organized social practices like the men reunions that took place at the molly houses. The
discussion about the origins of the term hold by Foucault exposed not only its contingency but
also the fact that this characteristic is extensive to the concept of heterosexuality which is actually
derivative from homosexuality. This reflections on the process of crystallizations of some ideas
and words in order to appear as natural set the ground for the theories about language and gender
that will develop Butler in the 90’s.
In the second part of the book, Jagose describes some of the most important social and political
movements that emerged during the final years of the nineteenth century and continued evolving
in the course of the twentieth century both in Europe and the United States. Beginning with the
Homophile Movement and then the later Gay Liberation and Lesbian Feminism, those chapters
study the political success but also the resistance that generated organizing a group of people
under the label of a supposed shared sexual orientation. While Homophile was a more
conservative movement that stood against discrimination and with the purpose of creating a
support community for gay people, the liberationist movements that appeared in the second half
of the century tried to shift away from any assimilationist policy practiced by their predecessor
and they built their movement around the idea of a distinctive gay identity. Probably one of the
most important contributions of these political forces to the development of gender theory was
their commitment to eradicating the notions of femininity and masculinity and its critique to
normative gender and sex roles. However, Jacose mentions that as time passed these groups
turned their attention to minority groups rather than seeking a universal transformation of social
structures.
Finally, the last part of the book discusses the limits of the political subjects and the identities
configurated by the liberationist movements mentioned before, and the arising of “queer” as a
new form of personal identification and political organization within the context of
poststructuralism. The notion of performativity proposed by Judith Butler in her most known texts
Gender trouble and Bodies that matter theorizes how identities are the result of the performative
effect of language and social practices and that in the dualism sex/gender, usually assumed as
nature//culture, both terms are equally constructed. As far as gender is constructed by iterative
practices it is always part of an ongoing process and not a fixed category.
One of the issues that called my attention while reading the book and that I find particularly
problematic is the idea of building a political identity around what it’s supposed to be a private
aspect of the individual life. I believe that one of the explanations this text provides about this
problem is related to the influence of the economic structures of capitalism in people’s private life.
However, I find that point of the argument very interested and still not complete explored in this
introduction.