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Margaret Patricia Blanch
University of New England
'Queering Difference and Social Justice'
This paper aims to analyse ideas expounded by queer and feminist theorists toward further understanding of the interrelated issues of sexuality, difference and social justice. The theorists whose contributions I examine are Judith Butler (1990, 1993), Michel Foucault (1978), Elizabeth Grosz (1994, 1995), Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (1990), Deborah Britzman (1998) and Nancy Fraser (1997).
As an introduction to the topic I outline the theoretical framework that underpins queer theory. I also try to locate the rather slippery concept of queer theory within the area of studies that aspires to know embodied social subjects. In doing so, I explain queer theory in relation to feminist, lesbian and poststructural theoretical perspectives.
In the first section of the paper I look at the way in which queer and feminist theorists understand difference. I do this by demonstrating ideas that Butler, Foucault, Grosz, Kosofsky Sedgwick and Britzman have developed regarding the concepts of essentialism, sexuality, identity and identification. Also, in this section I endeavour to illustrate the usefulness of queer theoretical ideas in understanding issues of sexuality and identity within an educational context.
Second, I discuss contributions by queer and feminist theorists to theorising social justice. I examine theoretical ideas developed by Fraser, Foucault and Butler concerning the politics of recognition and distribution, the way in which social justice is theorised in relation to structures of power and authority, and the constructed parameters that define normative and deviant behaviour.
Finally, I discuss ideas put forth by Kosofsky Sedgwick in regard to the homosexual advance defence known as “homosexual panic”. Very briefly, Kosofsky Sedgwick's ideas aim to realize more fully the heterosexually biased nature of the relationship that exists between homosexuals and the judicial and extra-judicial distribution of social justice.
Significantly, in this proposed presentation I interpret ideas expounded by the above mentioned theorists in order further to understand the ways in which oppressive constructions such as heteronormativity and sexism permeate our everyday lives by means of hegemonic ideals and institutions that aim to 'normalise' and/or eradicate differences and diversity.
Bio: Margaret Patricia Blanch is a teacher of English as a Second Language and Japanese and is presently living and teaching in Brisbane, Australia. In February 2003 she began part-time PhD candidature at the University of New England. Her PhD thesis concerns sexuality and schooling and will be based upon queer, feminist and poststructural interpretive analyses of personal narratives by lesbian identified adults recalling their life histories and experiences at school in relation to being homosexual. She was born in rural New South Wales, Australia and was obsessed with desire to travel from a very early age. Among other things, she studied pottery making in Tokyo, Japan for two and a half years and operated a music recording studio in Brooklyn New York for twelve years before returning to Australia to pursue a career in education.
<margieblanch@yahoo.com.au>