‘Happy’ and ‘Unhappy’ Performatives

Rossi, Leena-Maija

doi:10.1080/08164649.2011.546325

Cited by 14 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…4 Beyond this are comfortable and unthinking normative options which are perhaps less strictly or entirely aligned with the hegemonic, but which are nevertheless hegemonically satisfactory and 'do the job'. 5 An example of this 'good enough' normativity in a contemporary western setting might be a cohabiting heterosexual couple who remain unmarried. From this point onwards we begin to step into potentially nonnormative terrain.…”

Section: Why Heterodoxy?mentioning

confidence: 98%

Heterodoxy: Challenging orthodoxies about heterosexuality

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The intention of this article is to challenge orthodoxies regarding heterosexuality, which have tended to constitute it as a static monolith and queer as the only potential site for a less oppressive sexuality. By contrast, we consider heterodox possibilities for pleasure and change within the realm of the dominant. We examine three examples -divergence, transgression and subversion -and then consider some terminologies that might flesh out experiential aspects of these examples of social change in heterosexuality. This conjunction offers a means to acknowledge heterosexuality's coercive aspects while attending to its more egalitarian, less orthodox forms.The intention of this article is to challenge certain orthodoxies regarding heterosexuality -orthodoxies that have tended, in critical literatures, to constitute heterosexuality as a static monolith, an unvarying, commanding mass, and queer theories, identities and practices as the only potential source for a less oppressive sexuality. By contrast, we wish to consider heterodoxy within heterosexuality by exploring possibilities for non-normative pleasure and change within the realm of the dominant.

show abstract

Section: Why Heterodoxy?mentioning

confidence: 98%

Heterodoxy: Challenging orthodoxies about heterosexuality

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One such nonnormative possibility involves a departure from heteronormative gender roles (Rossi 2011). Building on halberstam (2005), Read (2013, 481) posits a Nevada brothel as a temporally queer space where "masculine control is mitigated" and sex workers assume "a position of control."…”

Section: Nonnormative Eroticism Of Heterosexualsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One such nonnormative possibility involves a departure from heteronormative gender roles (Rossi 2011). Building on Halberstam (2005), Read (2013, 481) posits a Nevada brothel as a temporally queer space where “masculine control is mitigated” and sex workers assume “a position of control.” Although patrons and sex workers do not entirely discard established gender or sexual categories, their encounters interrupt “the apparent uniformity of heterosexual positionalities” (Butler 1991, 24), highlighting that not all hetero-gender enactment adheres to normativity.…”

Section: Feminist and Queer Critiques Of Heterosexualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bounded Nonnormativity of Heterosexuality: Gendered Sex Partying in Hong Kong

Tsui

2023

Gender & Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite queer theory’s intention to critically analyze the institution of heterosexuality, how heterosexual men and women are differently constrained by normativity—or potentially rupture it—is underexplored. Through an ethnography of sex partying, I integrate queer and feminist perspectives to examine how people navigate and cope with institutionalized heterosexuality and compulsory monogamy. This study finds a contradictory relationship between sex partygoers and normativity: They embrace the ideal of straight manhood and womanhood but simultaneously feel constrained by and desire to transgress it. Therefore, the bounded nonnormativity of sex partying, which allows the compartmentalization of normative and nonnormative desires, is instrumental in helping them cope with the contradiction. This paper contributes to gendering transnational queer sociology by highlighting the distinct experiences of men and women in relation to the regime of normalcy in Hong Kong.

show abstract

“…It is the sexuality which never needs to be noted or declared as such. However, Rossi (2011: 9), drawing on Butler, reminds us that ‘the simultaneously naturalizing and normative idea of heterosexuality also conceals that its maintenance is based largely on its performativity : endless and continuous reiteration, repetitive representation, doing gender and sexuality over and over again’ (emphasis in the original). Visual representations take on particular significance in reiterations of the association between heterosexuality and successful ageing.…”

Section: (Hetero)sexualizing the Third Agementioning

confidence: 99%

Happily ever after? ‘Successful ageing’ and the heterosexual imaginary

Marshall

2017

European Journal of Cultural Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

‘Successful ageing’ has been a controversial concept in cultural gerontology, prompting critiques of its inherent individualism, neglect of structural inequalities and promotion of neoliberal strategies of self-care. This article aims at developing the critique of its heteronormative underpinnings. Drawing on cultural gerontology, feminist theory and queer theory, a critique of the rhetoric and visual representation of ‘successful ageing’ is developed that demonstrates the extent to which ‘success’ is equated with enactments of normative, gendered heterosexuality. The intent is not to simply map the exclusion or marginalization of queer representations but to make visible the ways in which assumptions of heterosexuality organize the visual field of ‘successful ageing’. Using examples from ‘lifestyle’ magazines and health promotion materials aimed at mid-to-later life adults, I demonstrate how the promise of ‘heterohappiness’ shapes visions of anticipatory ageing. This article forms part of ‘Media and the Ageing Body’ Special Issue.

show abstract

‘Happy’ and ‘Unhappy’ Performatives

Cited by 14 publications

References 11 publications

Heterodoxy: Challenging orthodoxies about heterosexuality

Heterodoxy: Challenging orthodoxies about heterosexuality

Bounded Nonnormativity of Heterosexuality: Gendered Sex Partying in Hong Kong

Happily ever after? ‘Successful ageing’ and the heterosexual imaginary

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About