Showing papers on "Heteronormativity published in 2010"

Sexual Politics, Orientalism and Multicultural Citizenship in the Netherlands

Abstract: Sexuality features prominently in European debates on multiculturalism and in Orientalist discourses on Islam. This article argues that representations of gay emancipation are mobilized to shape narratives in which Muslims are framed as non-modern subjects, a development that can best be understood in relation to the ‘culturalization of citizenship’ and the rise of Islamophobia in Europe. We focus on the Netherlands where the entanglement of gay rights discourses with anti-Muslim politics and representations is especially salient. The thorough-going secularization of Dutch society, transformations in the realms of sex and morality since the ‘long 1960s’ and the ‘normalization’ of gay identities since the 1980s have made sexuality a malleable discourse in the framing of ‘modernity’ against ‘tradition’. This development is highly problematic, but also offers possibilities for new alliances and solidarities in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning (LGBTQ) politics and sexual and cultural citi...

‘It’s Just Not Acceptable Any More’: The Erosion of Homophobia and the Softening of Masculinity at an English Sixth Form:

Abstract: This ethnographic research interrogates the relationship between sexuality, gender and homophobia and how they impact on 16- to 18-year-old boys in a coeducational sixth form in the south of England. Framing our research with inclusive masculinity theory, we find that, unlike the elevated rates of homophobia typically described in academic literature, the boys at ‘Standard High’ espouse pro-gay attitudes and eliminate homophobic language. This inclusivity simultaneously permits an expansion of heteromasculine boundaries, so that boys are able to express physical tactility and emotional intimacy without being homosexualized by their behaviours. However, we add to inclusive masculinity theory by showing the ways in which boys continue to privilege and regulate heterosexuality in the absence of homophobia: we find that heterosexual boundary maintenance continues, heterosexual identities are further consolidated, and the presumption of heterosexuality remains. Accordingly, we argue that even in inclusive cultures, it is necessary to examine for the processes of heteronormativity.

Language, Gender and Sexual Identity: Poststructuralist Perspectives

Abstract: This book makes an innovative contribution to the relatively young field of Queer Linguistics. Subscribing to a poststructuralist framework, it presents a critical, deconstructionist perspective on the discursive construction of heteronormativity and gender binarism from a linguistic point of view. On the one hand, the book provides an outline of Queer approaches to issues of language, gender and sexual identity that is of interest to students and scholars new to the field. On the other hand, the empirical analyses of language data represent material that also appeals to experts in the field. The book deals with repercussions of the discursive materialisation of heteronormativity and gender binarism in various kinds of linguistic data. These include stereotypical genderlects, structural linguistic gender categories (especially from a contrastive linguistic point of view), the discursive sedimentation of female and feminine generics, linguistic constructions of the gendered body in advertising and the usage of personal reference forms to create characters in Queer Cinema. Throughout the book, readers become aware of the wounding potential that gendered linguistic forms may possess in certain contexts.

Homophobia, transphobia and culture: deconstructing heteronormativity in English primary schools

Abstract: This article presents some of the advances in legal support for addressing homophobia and transphobia in school settings and provides a critique of schoolbased policies that focus on these phenomena as particular incidents involving bullies and victims. Defining heteronormativity as a cultural phenomenon underpinning recognisable acts of aggression, the authors describe some of the chief factors that seem to inhibit teachers from addressing sexuality and gender in primary schools. Drawing primarily on data from the No Outsiders project, where primary teachers throughout the UK have collaborated to promote lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equalities in their schools and classrooms, the authors argue that heteronormativity should be addressed by purposefully promoting the equality of LGBT people as part of a broader whole school ethos that celebrates diversity and challenges inequities of all kinds.

The modern model family at home in Singapore: a queer geography

Abstract: The two meanings of ‘domestic’, as both residential dwelling and national territory, collide unusually forcefully in Singapore since its Housing Development Board (HDB) provides most housing in this city-state. While many scholars have interrogated the boundaries between homely/unhomely and foreign/domestic in Singapore by examining gender, ethnic/racial and class politics of HDB, in this paper I argue for the analytical usefulness of considering Singapore housing and citizenship as heteronormative; and, more broadly, for the value of a queer theoretical approach in advancing critical geographies of home. Combining archival research with contemporary observation, I examine discourses of respectable domesticity and proper family across Singapore’s colonial and postcolonial periods in order to understand not just the exclusion of gays and lesbians, but also the ‘queering’ of a range of figures such as the single mother, the migrant worker, the unfilial child, and many others. Since the production of this range of non-heteronormative others is produced by a much more complex set of cultural logics than a focus on the deployment of a sexual binary can capture, the queer theoretical approach I argue for understands heteronormativity not as a universal policing of a heterosexual–homosexual binary, but as the geographically and historically specific coincidence of race, class, gender, nationality and sexual norms.

The re-production of homosexually-themed discourse in educationally-based organised sport.

Abstract: In this study, we draw on findings from one year of participant observation and 12 in-depth interviews with men in a highly-ranked English university rugby team in order to nuance theoretical understandings concerning the re-production of homosexually-themed discourse in organised sport. We use ethnographic data to theorise the complex relationship between language, homosocial masculine relationships and organised sport. In examining the political, intentional and inadvertent effects of these men's discourses, we define and discuss the notion of gay discourse as a form of heteronormativity that is dissimilar to the traditional use of homophobic discourse. Highlighting that homosexually-themed discourse is best understood as a continuum, we stress the importance of context in interpreting the meaning and explicating the effects of this kind of discourse.

Dangerous Omissions: Abstinence-Only-until-Marriage School-Based Sexuality Education and the Betrayal of LGBTQ Youth.

Abstract: To gain an understanding of how abstinence-only-until-marriage school-based sexuality education has been exclusionary, it is important to explore how heteronormativity has been endorsed, played out, and reproduced ever since school-based sexuality education has been offered in the United States. Such an exploration reveals glaring evidence that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) issues and individuals have been left out. It is likely that this has had negative repercussions on LGBTQ youth and heterosexually identified youth alike. The majority of this article deals with how sexuality education, particularly since so many abstinence-only-until-marriage-until marriage programs have received federal funding since 1996, has discriminated against sexual others (those who do not identify as heterosexual). We provide an analysis of school climate and the consequences of the lack of positive attention to LGBTQ issues and individuals in schools. While we point out that historically these prefer...

Elementary School Girls and Heteronormativity: The Girl Project

Abstract: This article examines preadolescent girls in a group setting as they coconstructed heteronormativity. The authors contend that heteronormativity is not the product of a coming-of-age transformation but instead an everyday part of life, even for very young social actors. It emerges from the gender divide between boys and girls but is also reproduced by and for girls themselves. In the Girl Project, the authors sought to understand younger girls’ interests, skills, and concerns. They conducted nine focus groups with 43 elementary school girls, most of whom were age nine or younger. They observed these girls as they defined “girls’ interests” as boy centered and as they performed heteronormativity for other girls. This article contributes to filling the gap in research on gender and sexuality from children’s own points of view.

How queer! The development of gender identity and sexual orientation in LGBTQ-headed families.

Abstract: This paper focuses on the impact of heteronormativity on research and clinical theory, utilizing the case of a lesbian couple with a young gender dysphoric child as a backdrop to discuss the contextual unfolding of gender development within a lesbian parented family. The extant research on LGBTQ-headed families has minimized the complexity of children's developing gender identity and sexual orientation living in queer families, and has been guided by heteronormative assumptions that presume a less optimal outcome if the children of LGBTQ parents are gay or transgender themselves. This article challenges family therapists to recognize the enormous societal pressure on LGBTQ parents to produce heterosexual, gender-normative children, and the expectations on their children, especially those questioning their own sex or gender identities.

‘Dangerous presumptions’: how single‐sex schooling reifies false notions of sex, gender, and sexuality

Abstract: Due to the recent changes in federal regulations about gender equity in education in the USA, some policy makers have resurrected single‐sex public education. Because single‐sex schooling ignores the complexity of sex, gender, and sexuality, it sets up a ‘separate but equal’ system that is anything but. Discounting the ways in which gender is negotiated, constructed, and performed, and the variability of anatomical sex, current arguments for single‐sex schooling reify the false binaries of sex and gender, rely on assumptions of heteronormativity and, in turn, negate the existence of multiple sexes, genders, and sexual orientations.

In the Name of Safety: Discursive Positionings of Queer Youth

Abstract: This paper explores the connections between two common circulating discourses about queer youth and the ways that these discourses are wielded in the name of creating safe spaces for queer youth. First, the discourse of innocence is still applied to queer youth, however, the application has shifted to focus largely on the ways that queer youth are innocent victims in a society structured around heteronormativity. Second, a common response to this innocent victim discourse has been to position queer youth within a discourse of activist educators. “Discourses not only represent the world as it is (or rather is seen to be), they are also projective, imaginaries, representing possible worlds which are different from the actual world, and tied into projects to change the world in particular directions” (Fairclough 2003, p. 24). Gay Straight Alliances are one example; GSAs have sprung up across the country because adults, queer adults and allies in particular, have employed both of these discourses in policy decisions and discussions regarding queer students. This paper will highlight some of the ways the discourses of innocent victims and activist educators have been used in the GSA movement. The paper will apply a queer theory lens to the relationship between these discourses and the GSAs to tease out the ways that they work to simultaneously support queer students and serve to limit how queer students and their schools are imagined. The paper will conclude with a discussion of some possibilities for reworking, rupturing, or transforming these discourses so that schools, as well as the queer students and teachers within them, might be better served.

Queer(y)ing the Straight Researcher: The Relationship(?) between Researcher Identity and Anti-Normative Knowledge:

Abstract: This article considers whether ‘straight’ identified researchers can produce anti-normative knowledge. This question derives from debates around what (if any) contribution ‘straight’ researchers can make to queer theory/research. While recognizing that political and ethical decisions are integral to this discussion, I focus on the epistemological implications of straight researchers’ participation in queer theory/research. This discussion grapples with a wider issue within identity politics around the participation of researchers who are regarded as representing the ‘norm’. I trouble the relationship between identity and knowledge by arguing that sexual identity does not determine the production of anti-normative knowledge. Insights from queer theory are employed to interrogate the power of heteronormativity in generating ‘normative’ knowledge, and elucidating whether these practices are invested in particular sexual identities.

Young Women’s Negotiations of Heterosexual Conventions: Theorizing Sexuality in Constructions of ‘the Feminist’

Abstract: Even though the normativity of heterosexuality has come into question in recent years, heterosexual norms continue to figure as a structuring principle in contemporary social life. Drawing on 40 qualitative interviews with a diverse group of young German and British women, this article analyses empirical research on feminist disidentification to show that heteronormativity plays a central role in young women’s negotiations of feminism. Numerous respondents established a link between feminism, unfemininity, man-hatred and lesbianism. By exploring constructions of ‘the feminist’, and by reconceptualizing the figure of ‘the feminist’ as a constitutive outside of heterosexual norms that haunts the interviews, this article foregrounds the importance of examining the dimension of sexuality in analyses of contemporary social phenomena.

Interrogating heteronormativity in primary schools: the No Outsiders project

Abstract: Renee DePalma and Elizabeth Atkinson, Stoke-on-Trent, Trentham Books, 2009, 156 pp., £17.99 (paperback), ISBN 9-78-185856-458-6 Interrogating Heteronormativity in Primary Schools is an exciting and...

Development, Sexual Rights and Global Governance

Abstract: Introduction: Development, Global Governance, and Sexual Subjectivities Amy Lind Part 1: Querying/Queering Development: Theories, Representations, Strategies 1. Why the Development Industry Should Get Over its Obsession with Bad Sex and Start to Think about Pleasure Susie Jolly 2. Transgendering Development: Reframing Hijras and Development Jyoti Puri 3. Querying Feminist Economics' Straight Path to Development: Household Models Reconsidered Suzanne Bergeron Part 2: Negotiating Heteronormativity in Development Institutions 4. The World Bank's GLOBE: Queers in/Queering Development Andil Gosine 5. NGOs as Erotic Sites Ara Wilson 6. Promoting Exports, Restructuring Love: How the World Bank Manages Policy Tensions through Heteronormativity in the Flower Industry Kate Bedford 7. 'Headless Families' and 'Detoured Men': Off the Straight Path of Modern Development in Bolivia Susan Paulson Part 3: Resisting Global Hegemonies, Struggling for Sexual Rights and Gender Justice 8. Spelling It Out: From Alphabet Soup to Sexual Rights and Gender Justice Sangeeta Budhiraja, Susana T. Fried and Alexandra Teixeira 9. Disrupting Gender Normativity in the Middle East: Supporting Gender Transgression as a Development Strategy Petra Doan 10. Behind the Mask: Developing LGBTI Visibility in Africa Ashley Currier 11. Queer Dominican Moves: In the Interstices of Colonial Legacies and Global Impulses Maja Horn

Gay and Lesbian Elders: History, Law, and Identity Politics in the United States

Abstract: Contents: Preface Introduction Part I History: The making of the pre-Stonewall generation Pre-Stonewall views on homosexuality Gay and lesbian elders in the new millennium. Part II Identity: The invisibility of gay and lesbian elders: the de-sexualized senior and the hyper-sexualized homosexual Ageism within the gay and lesbian community Homophobia and heteronormativity among the senior community and service providers. Part III Advocacy: The contemporary movement for gay and lesbian equality The legal fragility of same-sex partnerships and chosen family Financial insecurity and legal barriers to equality Fear of discrimination and anti-gay bias Conclusion References Index.

Justifying Sex: The Place of Women's Sexuality on a Social Justice Agenda:

Abstract: Within popular and professional discourses, consideration of women's sexuality often centers on its dangers and difficulties: unintended pregnancy, infection, varying forms of coercion and objectification, and sexual dysfunction. Such rhetoric is so persistent that sexuality itself is often perceived as inherently risky and dangerous. The present article challenges this equation by arguing that women's sexual vulnerability is attributable to social injustice and inequality on the basis of gender, heteronormativity, class, and race, rather than sexuality itself. The emerging interdisciplinary movement toward positive sexuality, including the relevance of desire and pleasure to social justice and social change, is reviewed with particular attention to the ways in which social work is especially well suited to assume a positive, social justice orientation to women's sexuality.

"Seismic Cultural Change?": British Media Representations of Same-sex 'Marriage'

Abstract: The legal recognition of same-sex relationships is a contested terrain that has been hotly debated by feminists. This article provides a social constructionist analysis of the UK newspaper media coverage around the time of the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act (2004). In examining the 348 national newspaper coverage over a three month period (November 2005–January 2006) we highlight three prevalent, and conflicting, themes: ‘same-sex marriage becomes legal under the Civil Partnership Act’; ‘couples will not get full legal status’ and ‘marriage is a heterosexual business’. We discuss these media representations and argue that the heteronormativity of the coverage provided little space for more radical constructions of same-sex relationship recognition.

Building back better? – negotiating normative boundaries of gender mainstreaming and post-tsunami reconstruction in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Indonesia

Abstract: This article focuses on gender mainstreaming policies and advocacy on gender equality in the post-tsunami context in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. Through the analysis, this article illustrates how gender mainstreaming policy documents and gender advocacy of the provincial and central government, when drawing from sex/gender division and binary of genders, reproduce heteronormative boundaries. By focusing on details, I argue that the image of the heteronormative nuclear family participates in normalising other identity categories; such as urban and middle-class. I also provide examples of how simultaneous to the production of dominant norms, gender advocacy challenges heteronormativity and norms governing heterosexuality and actively question the dominant gender norms. Drawing from postcolonial feminist and recent queer critiques, I argue that advocacy that solely focuses on gender and/or sexuality reduces human bodies and their desires to simplistic stick figures. Thus, it remains blind to other forms of violence, such as global economic and political frameworks that define ‘building back better’ primarily as recovery and rehabilitation of economy, assets and labour force.

Nationalism and the Imagination

Abstract: Nationalism is produced by tapping the most private attachment to ground for the purposes of the most public statecraft. It is predicated on reproductive heteronormativity: birthright. To "naturalize" is to legalize a simulacrum of displaced birth, which becomes an actual birthright for the next generation. Today's globalized world calls for a reinvention of the abstract state-structure for proper constitutional redress still to be available. It must be persistently cleansed of the emergence of nationalism through education. We are looking for a critical regionalism with trans-frontier jurisdiction. The international civil society has no social contract.

(Re)Marking Heteronormativity: Resisting Practices in Early Childhood Education Contexts:

Abstract: IN THIS PAPER WE DRAW from our own experiences and research into sexualities matters in early childhood education to illustrate the ongoing silencing of some forms of sexuality in the contexts of i...

Sense of Belonging in Secondary Schools: A Survey of LGB and Heterosexual Students in Flanders

Abstract: General description Sense of belonging is a frequently used concept in the sociology of education. It refers to the students’ subjective sense of being a valued member of the school community. It appears that when students have a lower sense of belonging in school, they are less socially integrated in school and feel less attached to school and teachers (Pearson, Muller, & Wilkinson, 2007). They isolate and alienate more from school and peers (Pearson et al., 2007) and skip classes more to avoid interactions with others (Johnson, Crosnoe, & Elder, 2001; Pearson et al., 2007). But it can also have consequences for their school achievement and school career, as it is found that students with a low sense of belonging engage less for academic activities, have more chances to get lower grades, fail more often for courses and often choose for a less challenging curriculum (Pearson et al., 2007). When students do feel they belong in school however, they frequently have higher expectancies for success, value schoolwork more and have a higher school motivation and interest (Goodenow, 1992). Sense of belonging can be influenced by many factors, and one of them is what is often called the “Person-Environment Misfit” (Edwards, Caplan, & Van Harrison, 1998). This misfit occurs when certain people or groups do not conform to the norms or expectations of the environment. This is often the case with minority groups in society, like immigrants, disabled persons or sexual minorities. Schools and other institutions in society are very heteronormative environments. Heteronormativity means that heterosexuality is perceived as the “normal” sexual orientation and alternative feelings or behaviors are seen as “abnormal”, “wrong”, or “deviant”. Heteronormativity hides in many corners of school life. For example courses on sexual education often only talk about relationships between boys and girls, and gay or lesbian intimate relations are seldom discussed (Buston & Hart, 2001). Another example are school boards who just ignore the existence of homosexuals in their classes or who refuse to deal with prejudice, discrimination, and abuse against LGB-students in their school (Black & Underwood, 1998). LGB-students can experience a misfit between these heteronormative demands and their homosexual or bisexual feelings and/or behaviors. This misfit can result in specific forms of stress and anxiety, often called “minority stress” (Meyer, 2003), but we believe it can also cause a general lower sense of belonging at school. In Europe, very little research on LGB-youth is conducted and many researchers are afraid to make explicit comparisons between LGB- and heterosexual students. Making this comparison however, can produce very interesting findings that can change the heteronormative climate in schools and other institutions. With this research we want to investigate if there is a difference in sense of belonging between LGB- and heterosexual students and if there is, explore the determinants of it. We will also take into account possible gender effects, because some studies found significant differences in sense of belonging when they compared girls and boys (Galliher, Rostosky, & Hughes, 2004; Goodenow, 1992). Methods The data used for this research are part of a bigger research project on the socio-psychological well-being of LGB-youth in Flanders, Belgium. This project is called “Zzzip@Youth” and is linked to an earlier investigation of the general well-being of LGB’s in Flanders, the “Zzzip”-study (Cox, Vanden Berghe, Dewaele, & Vincke, 2008). The research project used an online survey and recruited respondents through different channels, like secondary schools, youth service institutions and LGB-youth organizations. The survey was completed in 2007 by 4163 youngsters between 12 and 21 years old. For this research we only selected these respondents who were in secondary school when they completed the survey, 1745 in total. From these students, 162 are LGB and 1517 are heterosexual. The data are analyzed using step-wise multivariate statistics with sense of belonging as the dependent variable and sexual orientation, type of education and discrimination variables as central determinants. Expected outcomes Bisexual girls had a significantly lower sense of belonging at school in comparison with heterosexual girls, but for the boys we found no significant effects of sexual orientation. At first, lesbian girls did not differ significantly from heterosexual girls, but this changed when we added a measure for the perceived discrimination by teachers. Controlled for discrimination, being a lesbian did cause a weak, but significant, lower sense of belonging. It appeared that the effect of sexual orientation for lesbian girls was buffered by the fact that they experience less discrimination than heterosexual girls. When we take a closer look at differences in the subpopulation of LGB-students, we did not find any significant effect of sexual orientation, nor of year of birth, discrimination by fellow students, the degree of “outness” or the acceptance of their coming out by classmates or teachers. The only factors that did have a significant effect were vocational training, discrimination by teachers and the perception of the school as an LGB-friendly environment. LGB-students perceived their school as a rather LGB-friendly environment and this can also be a partial explanation of the low degrees of discrimination on LGB-students.

Toward Inclusivity in Family Narratives: Counter-Stories from Queer Multi-Parent Families

Abstract: While literature on gay and lesbian families has increased in the past two decades, much of the literature is shrouded in the Western, heteronormative notion that a family equates to a unit with two parents and children. Even though this norm is not the reality for many families, outdated notions of family persist. This article shares the findings from an in-depth qualitative study of five queer individuals who constructed multi-parent families. Their counter-narratives challenge narrow heteronormative notions of family and offer inspiration to anyone interested in creating a family that includes multiple parents. Common themes among their familial experiences included creativity, time, and effort in familial construction; communication and compromise among multiple parents; parenting outside the norm; and sharing counter-narratives as activism.

'Home is where the heart is': everyday geographies of young heterosexual couples' love in and of homes

Abstract: This thesis focuses on the relationships between heterosexuality, love, and home. It examines the homemaking practices and relationship activities of 14 heterosexual couples, and in particular the experiences of women in these relationships, who are aged between 20-40 years, have no children, and live in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand. It is argued that heterosexual bodies that ‘love’, and the domestic spaces they occupy, are mutually constituted and continually reproduced through the everyday practices of homemaking. ‘Couple’ interviews, solicited diaries and self-directed photography, follow-up individual interviews and evaluation questionnaires are used to access couples’, and in particular women’s, everyday geographies of heterosexuality, love and home. A combination of qualitative research methods and feminist poststructuralist theory is used to give rise to an embodied, emotionally situated and partial geography. My findings are organised around three spatial scales: body, dwelling, and household and beyond. Focusing on the first scale – body – provides an opportunity for foregrounding gendered and sexed bodies as important sites of homemaking. A multiplicity of homemaking practices occur at the site of the body, including: the feelings, emotions, sensations, and language of love; the expressions and spaces of physical affection and intimacy; and the presence of corporeal and domestic dirt. Focusing on the second scale – dwelling – allows for an understanding of the ways in which discourses of love are mapped on to specific materialities of home. Issues of privacy and the negotiated use of shared domestic spaces, the creation and enactment of domestic activities and routines, and the accumulation and arrangement of material domestic objects all come to the fore when considering dwellings. The third scale – household and beyond – is used to examine some of the ways in which households and homemakers are connected to broader social, cultural, political and economic relations of power beyond the physical dwelling. Paying attention to the household and beyond prompts a consideration of the ways in which housing tenure and the practices of household consumption can dissolve the public and private boundaries that surround home. The heteronormativity of geographical discourse means that the relationship between heterosexuality, love and home is often taken-for-granted as ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ and as such is left ‘invisible’ and unremarked upon. Making the relationship between heterosexuality, love and home explicit in the production of geographical knowledge displaces ontological and epistemological assumptions about the naturalness and normality of heterosexuality. This study responds to the lack of critical attention paid to the relationship between love, heterosexuality and home in geography. Considering the homemaking practices and relationship activities of heterosexual couples encourages a more critical understanding of the normative and powerful ways in which heterosexual bodies and domestic spaces are…

Assertion, regulation and consent: gay students, straight flatmates, and the (hetero)sexualisation of university accommodation space

Abstract: Building upon conceptualisations of the sexualisation of space, this paper interrogates the ways in which heterosexual discourses are produced, enforced, legitimised and maintained as dominant within student accommodation. Analysis is derived from interviews with 17 gay male undergraduates attending a UK institution. I detail the micro‐level processes, as framed by dictums of hegemonic heterosexual masculinities, by which participants’ male flatmates reinscribed the heterosexual matrix in their living spaces. I then deconstruct how they safeguarded it through their verbal and physical regulation of alternate sexualities. Some participants contributed to the maintenance and validation of this heteronormativity in downplaying, justifying and not challenging flatmates’ behaviour which could be coded as anti‐gay. I therefore position student accommodation as a key site for the socio‐spatial production of the heterosexual matrix and reinscription of heteronormativity, as construed through the workings of asser...

Playing at the queer edges

Abstract: Through autoethnography, queer theory and edgework, I examine Wild Ginger Witchcamp, an annual five‐day event where one hundred or so people gather to celebrate shared politics, spirituality and environmental concerns. I include narratives of lived experience, woven and layered into the text to illuminate the complex realities of leisure that extends beyond resisting the normative to one of the nurturing alternatives. The social health of a community depends on the community’s ability to publicly affirm itself, and it is critical that a community find a way to transmit and transform its culture. Queer theory, the related constructs of heteronormativity and counterpublics, along with edgework, can help us understand the importance of communal and culturally relevant leisure particularly for individuals and communities that do not see themselves reflected in the dominant culture.

Prejudice Before Pride: Rise of an Anticipatory Countermovement

Abstract: While homophobia is generally a response to overt expression of non-heteronormative identities, transnational discursive flows in particular have helped to shift the sequence toward a form of anticipatory countermobilization Singapore offers a recent example In March 2009, a group of evangelical Christians staged a takeover of Singapore’s most established feminist organization, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) Details emerged gradually: the ringleaders deemed AWARE too accommodating of lesbians and non-normative sexuality The event caused a firestorm in Singapore Over two thousand incensed women and men thronged an extraordinary general meeting, in which the “old guard” successfully ousted the new, amid an incredible show of overt feminism and queer-friendliness (Ironically, concerned for its image, AWARE had rarely advocated openly for lesbians or other sexual minorities) The contest was front page news in Singapore, finding its way even into the prime minister’s annual National Day address While the storm has since died down, the AWARE case raises key questions about the subtleties of “queer” mobilization in proudly “conservative societies” (to use the Singapore government’s usual phrase); the intermeshing of feminist and “queer” identities; and especially the nature and origins of homophobia in Singapore and the region more broadly Both “feminism” and what I will label “homonormativity” (acceptance of “queer” people and practices, not necessarily per western binaries) are most commonly framed outside the US and Western Europe as at least partly imported, if not inappropriately foreign In some cases, feminism informs homonormativity; in others, feminists only reluctantly encounter or embrace challenges to heteronormativity Even tentative expressions of queer identity raise boundary challenges for feminists and their organizations A recent surge in generally religiously-justified homophobia forces those boundaries to the foreground, requiring immediate and precise specification of gender-bounded identities amid a widening range of indigenous and extralocal discursive possibilities This paper starts from Singapore and extends through Southeast Asia - a region both religiously diverse and in which understanding and performance of non-heteronormativity tends to privilege gender over sex dimensions - to explore the emergence and anxious expression of homophobia even as homonormativity remains marginal and largely suppressed

Building heteronormativity: the social and material reconstruction of men's public toilets as spaces of heterosexuality

Abstract: This paper concerns changes in the spatial structure of British public toilets for men over the last ten years from secluded, indistinctly public/private spaces towards open, largely public structures. It examines a number of past and present toilet spaces in the British city of Manchester using spatial syntax analysis to consider how spaces have been adapted and policed differently in order to reduce opportunities for sex between men. It considers how these changes relate to shifts in the legislative context and in planning and policing initiatives away from explicit homophobia towards policies of inclusion of certain sexual minorities. The paper concludes that the way in which inclusion and a post-homophobic context have been expressed through legislative changes and planning and policing initiatives in relation to public toilets has led to a more explicit heteronormalisation of public spaces. The discussion relates to current debates in cultural geography about the consequences of greater participation...