Queernormative Culture: The Practice of Creating Norms in Queer Dominated Space

• In Event: 380 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Space and Interactions

Abstract

Heteronormativity is the system of practices, norms, and institutions which privilege, assume, and require heterosexuality. Heteronormativity constructs a gender binary and particular gender roles for men and women. Heteronormativity is ubiquitous. It renders actions by queer people invisible, or misinterprets them and rewrites them to fit a heteronormative narrative. As a result, cultures and norms created by queer people have been ignored by scholars in favor of interpreting queer actors’ practices through the lens of heteronormativity. I argue that certain norms employed and maintained by queer actors are better understood as being constrained by and producing what I call “queernormative culture.” Queernormative culture stands distinct from heteronormative culture, and cannot be understood by taken-for-granted assumptions of (resistance to) heteronormativity. In this paper I provide a conception of culture which begins to free gender theory from its heteronormative assumptions, and provide a case study of a queernormative culture. Broadly, I contribute an analytic tool to advance the study of sexuality and gender beyond the limiting ways we currently understand it.

Author

• Dan Michael Fielding, University of Oregon