Table Of ContentQueer Theory
READERS IN CULTURAL CRITICISM
General Editor: Catherine Belsey
Posthumanism Neil Badmington
Theorizing Ireland Claire Connolly
Postmodern Debates Simon Malpas
Queer Theory Iain Morland and
Annabelle Willox
Reading the Past Tamsin Spargo
Performance Studies Erin Striff
Reading Images Julia Thomas
Gender Anna Tripp
ReadersinCulturalCriticism
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Queer Theory
Edited by Iain Morland and Annabelle Willox
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AnnabelleWillox2005
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Contents
List of Figures vii
General Editor’s Preface viii
Acknowledgements x
1 Introduction Iain Morland and Annabelle Willox 1
2 From Here to Queer: Radical Feminism, Postmodernism, and 6
the Lesbian Menace Suzanna Danuta Walters
3 Gay Men, Lesbians, and Sex: Doing It Together 22
Patrick Califia
4 1,112 and Counting Larry Kramer 28
5 The Leather Daddy and the Femme Carol Queen 40
6 The Return to Biology Marjorie Garber 54
7 Intersex Activism, Feminism and Psychology Peter Hegarty 70
in conversation with Cheryl Chase
8 Axiomatic Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick 81
9 A Brief, Slanted History of ‘Homosexual’ Activity 96
Donald E. Hall
10 Gender Fucking or Fucking Gender? Stephen Whittle 115
11 GenderFusion Del LaGrace Volcano and Indra Windh 130
v
vi Contents
12 Contagious Word: Paranoia and ‘Homosexuality’ in the Military 142
Judith Butler
13 I’d Rather Be the Princess than the Queen! Mourning Diana 158
as a Gay Icon William J. Spurlin
14 Identity Judgements, Queer Politics Mark Norris Lance 171
and Alessandra Tanesini
15 Afterword Mandy Merck 187
Summaries and Notes 192
Further Reading 214
Notes on the Contributors 217
Index 220
List of Figures
1 Some mappings of sex, gender and sexuality 85
2 Loren Cameron’s self-portrait 127
3 My man Luigi 130
4 Blue Vulva and Luigi Cabron de la Concha 132
5 Hermselfportrait: Indra 133
6 Hermtorso 134
7 Hermselfportrait: Del 136
8 Hermbirth 137
9 Tindra Windh and Blue Vulva 140
vii
General Editor’s Preface
Culture is the element we inhabit as subjects.
Culture embraces the whole range of practices, customs and representa-
tionsofasociety.Intheirrituals,storiesandimages,societiesidentifywhat
they perceive as good and evil, proper, sexually acceptable, racially other.
Cultureisthelocationofvalues,andthestudyofculturesshowshowvalues
varyfromonesocietytoanother,orfromonehistoricalmomenttothenext.
But culture does not exist in the abstract. On the contrary, it is in the
broadest sense of the term textual, inscribed in the paintings, operas,
sculptures,furnishings,fashions,busticketsandshoppinglistswhicharethe
currency of both aesthetic and everyday exchange. Societies invest these
artefacts with meanings, until in many cases the meanings are so ‘obvious’
thattheypassfornature.Culturalcriticismdenaturalizesanddefamiliarizes
these meanings, isolating them for inspection and analysis.
Thesubjectiswhatspeaks,or,moreprecisely,whatsignifies,andsubjects
learn in culture to reproduce or to challenge the meanings and values
inscribed in the signifying practices of the society that shapes them.
If culture is pervasive and constitutive for us, if it resides in the docu-
ments,objectsandpracticesthatsurroundus,ifitcirculatesasthemeanings
and values we learn and reproduce as good citizens, how in these circum-
stances can we practise cultural criticism, where criticism implies a certain
distance between the critic and the culture? The answer is that cultures are
not homogeneous; they are not even necessarily coherent. There are always
other perspectives, so that cultures offer alternative positions for the sub-
jects they also recruit. Moreover, we have a degree of power over the
messages we reproduce. A minor modification changes the script, and may
alter the meaning; the introduction of a negative constructs a resistance.
The present moment in our own culture is one of intense debate. Sexual
alignments, family values, racial politics, the implications of economic
differences are all hotly contested. And positions are taken up not only in
explicit discussions atpolitical meetings, on televisionandin thepub. They
are often reaffirmed or challenged implicitly in films and advertisements,
viii
General Editor’s Preface ix
horoscopes and lonely-hearts columns. Cultural criticism analyses all these
forms in order to assess their hold on our consciousness.
Thereisnointerpretativepractice withouttheory,andthemoresophisti-
cated the theory, the more precise and perceptive the reading it makes
possible. Cultural theory is as well defined now as it has ever been, and as
stronglycontestedasoursocialvalues.Therecouldnot,inconsequence,be
a more exciting time to engage in the theory and practice of cultural
criticism.
Catherine Belsey
Cardiff University
