The False Idealization of Heteronormativity and the Repression of Queerness

If you would like to read my thesis, published through Louisiana State University, please click on the photo below.

 

Here is a brief summary:

In this thesis, entitled “The False Idealization of Heteronormativity and the Repression of Queerness,” I examine heteronormativity as a social structure that is idealized over, and against, queerness. In the first chapter, I define heteronormativity and queerness. “Heteronormativity,” here, is simply a set of standards that dictate what one must do with their gender and sexuality, such as having sexual relations with the opposite sex, getting married, or having children. Heteronormativity is visible, validated, and normalized in society. Conversely, “queerness” refers to the social structures that dictate what one must not do with their gender and sexuality. Thus, queerness is condemned, threatened, and prohibited.

Furthermore, I argue that all of us have transgressed the social structure of heteronormativity since no one can consistently maintain all that heteronormativity implies. Therefore, we all have embodied queerness in one way or another. However, we have also been systematically taught to repress queerness within ourselves and others in an attempt to reduce our fear of it. Moreover, the widespread repression and fear of queerness in society supports and justifies a hierarchical capitalistic system. Since queerness is devalued and considered inappropriate, those who hold power over us, such as in the workplace, have the right to control and regulate our gender and sexual expression.

In the second chapter of my thesis, I turn my attention to Hegel’s ethical family where parents are obligated to repress their children’s queerness through the use of discipline. In the third and final chapter, I offer a solution to the problem of the repression of queerness. I argue that, if we can recognize that all of us embody queerness in one way or another and if we can allow ourselves the chance to try to understand each other’s queerness without the impulse to repress it, we can achieve queer solidarity. We will see that our struggle with gender and sexuality under a heteronormative social structure that is enforced all around us is a collective struggle. Therefore, the recognition of each other’s queerness without the impulse to condemn it can act as a bridge to help us recognize that we are integrally connected to one another.

genderqueer

I identify as genderqueer. This is both a personal and political identity. I reject society's need to categorize us into feminine and masculine roles that limit our human ability to be authentic. Why must we live up to these standards of being a 'real' man or the 'perfect' woman? I say we are more than these categories, and we can only achieve authenticity when we can break free from gender roles.

Feminism was and is the idea that gender roles are oppressive and limiting. I respect second wave feminism and radical feminism and have read many from that time period. I have learned a lot from them and continue to read them. I have read Dworkin, Firestone, Wittig, de Beauvoir, Carol Hanisch, Sarah Lucia Hoagland, radicalesbians, etc.

I understand that the queer movement suppresses and/or ignores the needs of women and those assigned female at birth (i.e. ‘girls’). How often do we hear about transwomen but not of transmen? How often do we hear of the needs of gay men, but not of lesbians? Those assigned female at birth are ignored and dismissed because under a system of patriarchy the concerns of "girls" are second to men.

However, I do believe that the queer movement has validity, and I respect them just as much as I respect feminism. They have given us a language to speak about breaking down these barriers of femininity and masculinity, to diffuse these roles so that others can take them up and transform them.

Firestone says, “The sex role system divides human experience; men and women live in these different halves of reality; and culture reflects this.” She goes on to argue that women need to be fully integrated into larger society… that women’s role in society need to be diffused into the wider culture so that women are no longer oppressed by their roles as mother, wife and sex object.

The queer movement to me is one process that is conducive to this process… they are attempting to break down these strict, oppressive identities where all females are to embody femininity while all males are to go along with masculinity. A queer identity allows for difference, something other than what has been possible to imagine.

It is not the queer movement that I have a particular problem with. It is a system based in heterosexism I have a problem with…

Our entire society is built around the suppression of women and ‘deviants.’ Even feminism is not free of it. Women’s oppression is a societal problem, not just the problem of individual movements.