LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
Student CAMP: Queer Theory, Queer Practice |
by Kristen Minor |
In browsing next fall's course offerings for my university one can find a listing for "Introduction to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies." This course has been offered for several years now via the Women's Studies department. For those who don't wish to be accidentally outed, it shows up on a transcript as "Special Topics in Women's Studies." What makes this listing noteworthy this year is that Queer 101 is going to be cross-listed in the course book under "queer theory" and "GLBT studies." This course and others like it remain under Women's Studies, but this change illustrates a progression at Dartmouth that will in time lead to the establishment of a full fledged GLBT studies department. The trend towards GLBT Studies departments in universities is gaining momentum. In 1997, activist Larry Kramer made headlines when he offered his multimillion-dollar estate to his alma mater Yale to establish such a department. Yale's administration balked, but after four years of fights that reflected badly on them they reached an agreement with Kramer. Currently students who major in Women's and Gender Studies at Yale can choose between a women's, GLBT, or gender studies track. Yale's decision to recognize and institute GLBT studies has lent much-needed credence to the field. The question remains, though. Is queer studies a valid and useful field? I'm not entirely convinced. I support the establishment of queer studies at my university. I want to see sexuality, gender identity, GLBT subcultures, and all and sundry like topics discussed and analyzed in a meaningful way by academia. The binary and heterosexist assumptions that culture and society regularly make deserved to be challenged, and setting queer studies up as a department in its own right proves that the field isn't a "women's issue" or something worth only a concessionary course every now and then to keep the queers happy. That being said, I also have deep reservations about how such a department will actually function. Will the rest of my school, or anyone's school, be content to ignore GLBT issues when a department has been established? It is far too easy for most disciplines to gloss over queer issues already; I fear that other departments will use the GLBT department's existence to justify their avoidance of queerness in class." This topic has its own department, therefore I will not discuss issues covered there in my course." What message is sent to students when a history department has courses on black, gay, or Latino history when every course without an assigned ethnicity is an endless parade of European white men? My other criticism of queer theory is its tendency to perpetuate intellectual masturbation. At some point theory becomes so far removed from reality that it becomes absurd and incomprehensible to even those in the queer community. There is, for example, a queer white man that I know who frequently discusses his identity as a "black lesbian bi-gendered trans-queer pansexual." He's real fun at parties. Perhaps I am one of the closed-minded oppressors, but I find him and his constructed identity ridiculous. Call yourself a bi-gendered trans-queer pansexual, whatever that may mean, in an attempt to be challenging (read: deliberately confusing), but how on earth does reading black lesbian feminist literature magically morph one into the next Audre Lourde? The mind boggles. The final consideration is the activist role of queer theory, which hearkens back to how accessible queer theory is to the population at large. It's not a stretch to imagine persons taking queer theory are not dyed-in-the-wool homophobes, or even people who think "Gay. Ick" without being overtly homophobic. Having a department at a college would not seem to change minds of homophobic people-at the very least, not compared to direct activism and the tried-and-true "getting to know a gay person" method. Also, theoretical discussions on how there are seven separate genders or the socioeconomic ramifications of drag are well and good, but they are not particularly helpful to those who are struggling to deal with accep-ting their feelings for the same sex or overcoming homophobia in their lives. Give me a campus where I can walk into any fraternity holding hands with another woman and encounter no problems whatsoever and then I will spend my energy crusading for queer studies. To me it is a question of priorities. Kristen Minor, a member of the class of 2004 at Dartmouth College, considers her term paper on noun incorporation in Ahkwesahsne Mohawk to be the most useful bit of academia ever written. In keeping with her feelings of ambiguity, she will audit but not take Homo 101 next fall. She can be reached at kristen@youth-guard.org . |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 12, No. 06, May 31, 2002. |