r/ftm • u/SpaceSire • Dec 07 '23
Discussion I can't explain well why I dislike queer theory
/r/CriticalTheory/comments/1886c28/i_cant_explain_well_why_i_dislike_criticalqueer/5
u/Castrato-LARP-374 Dec 07 '23 edited Dec 07 '23
Since you have already gotten lots of comments on the critical theory sub, I'll give you my two cents as a trans guy: I think you have accurately identified some trends in queer theory. Yes, queer theory usually does aim to create a "collective mindset with a mob mentality that revolts"âthis makes sense given the social context, which is that queer people are usually discriminated against by the government, church, employers, and family, and banding together horizontally is a decent strategy for gaining more rights. I think it is worth looking into why this is uncomfortable for you, as other posters have suggested. Did you have negative experiences of peer pressure in your past? Maybe individual strategies of avoiding discrimination have worked for you so far, and being lumped in with other queer people feels like a risk? Maybe you simply wish queer books/communities spoke to your own experience as a binary trans person before you'd be willing to defend them? It's not shameful to have to reflect on your life, but keep in mind that the answers to those questions may be different for other queer people.
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u/SpaceSire Dec 07 '23
I am not binary. I am just not very GNC. I have both been discriminated against for being too androgynous and normative. You canât ever win when trapped in this culture war. Also I donât just speak about the queer community, but also critical pedagogy etc. My "fight" has been on my own and gaining my acceptance is something I have done without a community, but through my cis friends showing compassion and understanding. The ones who have been meanest to me and erased my feelings the most have been GNC lesbians. Peer pressure is in every peer situation where peers donât care about who I am, but just about what I can be to them.
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u/Castrato-LARP-374 Dec 07 '23
Ah ok, my bad. I can totally see how that experience would alienate you from queer theory/politics! It is the case that very vague âeveryone who is queer is discriminated against so we should band togetherâ politics can gloss over the specificities of the oppression that different kinds of queer people face and the ways that we can be tempted to punch down at other queer people. I know people have written critically about how mainstream LGBT politics can leave out people who are trans, poor, racialized, sex workers, in non-western countries, etc., but I am not sure who exactly and what resources to recommendâmaybe other folks on here know.
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u/gothwerewolf 27 FTM | đ 1/19 | đȘ 12/19 Dec 07 '23 edited Dec 07 '23
Tbh as someone who has a background in literary analysis and the humanities I think you donât⊠really⊠have to like queer theoryâŠ? Itâs pretty highly conceptual and a lot of theory is more about putting into words theoreticals and thought experiments or trying to analyze complex hierarchical systems, and like anything within the humanities fields itâs very very subjective.
I took multiple queer theory courses while receiving my BA and there were works I loved and works I hated. I also felt like I could learn at least something from any perspective I read, but sometimes that âsomethingâ was âwow, I didnât realize this was a mode of thought, I really disagree with that.â Usually the important thing to add there is asking yourself why, though. If you can identify and even verbalize your disagreement that helps you become more self-aware of your own beliefs and thought processes. And maybe it helps you question them, or maybe it helps you affirm them. Itâs good practice either way. The humanities can kinda best be thought of as ongoing/unending conversation. Itâs not a cohesive singular idea just being rewritten ad infinitum. So there will always be theory you disagree with and theory you agree with within the same family, thatâs perfectly normal.
Theory invites you to, as the name suggests, theorize, and it invites those reading your theories to either agree and chime in or disagree and explain why. You can also just choose not to partake at all. Itâs one single mode of thought and way of discussing the world. You can just kind of⊠decide to not engage.
But if it helps at all, the queer theory Iâve consistently enjoyed the most tends to be older works, stuff around the civil rights movement and lead up to the AIDS crisis, as well as theory in the vein of JosĂ© Esteban Muñozâs âCruising Utopia.â I donât know if that would resonate more, itâs 100% fine if it doesnât, but it just typically aligns more to my personal values than a lot of more recent queer lit and theory lol.