Kuaering Queer Theory

Abstract

Critiquing queer theory's omissions in race and class, E. Patrick Johnson (2001) suggests "quare" studies, a turn similar to that being made from feminism to womanism. I fully embrace Johnson's theorizing. But to make relevant the worlds lying beyond the pale of North America, Europe, and the English language to the study of sexualities and other dimensions of systematic discrimination, I use kuaer theory to make another turn. One that is at once race-conscious, womanist and transnational. I travel through three awakenings, and look into nu nu (female-female) words in Taiwanese and Chinese lesbian existence in different historical periods. I also ofter a rhetorical analysis of the title of Ai Bao, the first officially registered Taiwanese lesbian magazine, exploring its persuasiveness via wordplay and multiple entendre. In addition, from jin lan hui to nu tongzhi, from T/puo and lazi to kuer, I provide sketches of heterogeneous and complex Taiwanese and Chinese nu nu worlds. As I get deeper into my autocritography, these women become my women and I learn to utter my own words in a language that is little pre-packaged. My crossing marks a daring but humble beginning. If nothing else, there is at least more space for bringing up race and transnational complicity queerly.

Hegemonic Heteronormativity: Toward a New Era of Queer Family Theory

“…[E]ven when [gays and lesbians of color] seek shelter under queer, we must not forget that it homogenizes, erases our differences" (p. 127). In line with race-conscious permutations of queer theory (e.g., quare theory, Johnson, 2005; kuaer theory, Lee, 2003), we embrace the constitutive nature of the proposed "contextual spheres" surrounding the axes of hegemonic heteronormativity.…”

Outing Heteronormativity in Interpersonal and Family Communication: Feminist Applications of Queer Theory “Beyond the Sexy Streets”

“…While some queer theorists have held gender firmly in their analytical grasp, others have focused exclusively on sex and sexuality, leaving gender in the domain of feminist inquiry. However, scholars have noted how in the absence of an analysis of gender, queer theory can reinscribe white gay male identities, erasing gendered and racialized differences (e.g., Johnson, 2001;Lee, 2003). Furthermore, queer theory's emphasis on fluid, destabilized identities has at times led to analyses that privilege parodic play and public gender crossing to the extent that its project seems outside of, or irrelevant to, those factions of society that remain predicated on heterosexual norms.…”

“…a racial whiteness oblivious to its own conditions of privilege'' (Walton, 1997, as cited in Weed & Schor, 1997. Johnson's (2001) quare theory and Lee's (2003) kuaer theory respond to queer theory's whiteness by proposing a race-conscious, transnationally informed study of sexuality's constitutive role in constructing social hierarchies. Feminist intersectionality theory, which allows for a more comprehensive analysis of various intersecting forms of marginalization (e.g., Crenshaw, 1989;Dill & Zambrana, 2009), is also useful in resolving this dilemma.…”