Brittney Ludwig

While we are all the same, we are also very, very different. Queer theory is something that has been studied by many different people with a variety of perspectives. It is something that is still being studied today, and in this essay I will discuss different perspectives on queer theory throughout history. Queer theory starts with one mans ideas and evolves throughout history. Eve Sedgwick is an academic scholar in the field of gender studies and queer theory who said, People are different from each other. The following analysis explores queer theory as we study the ideas of Jacques Derrida, Michael Foucault, Alfred Kinsey and Judith Butler. As we look at their ideas and philosophies we will see how each of them view the Queer world. Jacques Derrida, born in 1930, is a well-known philosopher who developed a strategy called deconstruction. Before we can really understand Derridas strategy of deconstruction, we need to understand the concepts that led up to it. First, we need to talk about the theory postmodernism. Modernism is the idea that we are always getting better and evolving in certain areas. Post-modernism however questions the idea of modernism and asks if it is really true that we are moving forward and evolving. One problem with post-modernism is it poses many problems due to language. People judge others before they even know them; we base our judgments on language. Language is also binary, which means something has to be one or the other it cant be in between and its exclusionary. It is hard to deconstruct something when you have all those things playing a factor in it. Next well discuss discourse, or in other words, the way society communicates with each other through words, and relates back to the language problem we have with post-modernism. The discourse in post-modernism includes words that are mean and hurtful; these words come from the society. People judge someone and call them a slut or a whore and they dont even know the person. When people start to use words like these

that involve language and the society set rules, those people are falling into the binary system of society. That binary system is two set sides like male or female, there is nothing in the middle. All of these pieces together, post-modernism, language and discourse we can understand deconstruction. Deconstruction is the idea of trying to fix all the collective problems that affect us, mentioned above. Today when people are still being judged in society, they question the idea of modernism and ask if we really are evolving. We cant construct it if we dont know what it consists of. Deconstruction has influenced Derridas field of philosophy as well as many other fields such as psychology, sociology and feminism. It has been used to deconstruct such things as text documents to find the literal meaning all the way to peoples feelings. Derridas strategy called deconstruction falls into the next person I would like to talk about, Michel Foucault. Derrida broke things apart and Foucault looks at the individual piece as well as the large picture. He influenced philosophy and stretched his ideas to many other humanistic and social science disciplines. Foucault had three main ideas; the first idea of Foucaults is the history of sexuality. He produced a timeline beginning from early times when sex and drinking were common, then moved to the Roman times when marriage and money was invented and homosexuality was encouraged. During 600 BCE, sex and guilt become connected to each other. Sex and guilt became connected because people started having the idea that having sex was not for pleasure, only to reproduce. From 1000-1800 Dante invented heaven and hell, courtly love, and most importantly- heterosexual vs. homosexual states in the 1800s. In the early 1900s people started connecting sex, marriage, guilt and love. The last thing on this timeline that is important is in 1969 when the Stonewall happened at the Stonewall Inn, which was the start of Gay Rights. All this history on sexuality leads to society saying that during 17th century into the mid-20th century everyone was trying to suppress sexuality. Foucault argues that by

saying the discourse on sexuality was increasing during this time. He also says that experts began to look at sexuality in a scientific manner and inspire people to confess their sexual feelings. Foucaults second idea is the panopticon, an idea that originally belonged to Jeremy Bentham. This allegory was a prison that was round, with cells on the outer walls and having glass that could be seen into and out of. In the middle of the cells was a tower that had one way glass which could only be seen out of, this is where officers resided. The prisoners in those cells would think that someone was watching them at all times which would lead them to follow the rules. Eventually, there wouldnt be a need for someone in that tower because the prisoners would be trained to follow the rules. This idea leads to self-policing. If we, as humans, get to a point where we can think before doing something, we have started to self-police ourselves. Foucaults last idea is that there is no true self. We are so many different people that you cannot define you. As the soccer mom who takes care of the kids, and also a lawyer eight hours a day, one wears so many different hats. In a poem by Pablo Neruda, called We Are Many he explains the idea of self very well. He says, Of the many men whom I am, whom we are/ I cannot settle on a single one. Alfred Kinsey, who carries degrees such as biology and sexology, came up with a very simple idea that nobody had thought of doing before. He wanted to question people about their sex history, and in doing so he learned many things about people. He learned that many people are truly alike, they like to try new things in bed and most people are just scared to talk about it. He put the data that he was getting from the questionnaires together, and he created the Kinsey scale. The Kinsey scale has many different variations; the one below is the heterosexual and homosexual experience. Kinsey would put different variables on each side to find out where the majority of people landed. It is evident from the below graph not one person he interviewed was

exclusively heterosexual. The majority of people are bisexual. He then continued to do studies and taught classes that involved sexuality. He continued this research and eventually founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University where he taught, and where they continue to study sex and collect sex questionnaires from people to this day. The institute now has over a million sex histories. All of these sex histories showed that being bisexual and women masturbating were not a taboo thing. Kinsey talked about something in general that had been taboo for many years, sex. People wanted to talk about it and find out what others thought of it.
The Kinsey Scale

Judith Butler was born in 1956 and is a leading writer in gender and sexuality studies. She is considered the Father of Queer Theory. Butler took Derridas theory that language is exclusionary because its binary and judgmental, and expanded upon it. She said that language is dangerous when it comes to talking about gender. Using words like stud and slut can hurt people in many different ways. She also says that words are a performance act because when someone says Im male they receive all the privileges of a male.

Butler then takes Foucaults collective history of sexuality and says that its all a social construct; that isnt how things should be. She says to walk away from social constructs, fight against the glass box that Foucault talks about. Then she takes Kinseys chart that explains gender, sexual orientation, and attraction and says that it isnt important because its all a social construct. Butlers big idea is just to be. Dont follow what society says needs to be done; there should be no social constructs to follow. Dont shouldnt try to be someone you arent, just be. Butler took everyone elses ideas and made them her own by piecing together the most validated research from each. Throughout history, we have come up with many different theories that relate to Queers. Out of the four people studied above, none of them say that being Queer is bad or is going to hurt anyone. As Sedgwick said, People are different from each other. If we were all the same this world would be a boring and unhappy place. Living the way we want to live, and being who we want to be is a much more enjoyable and rewarding way of life. People have different thoughts and beliefs systems, but if we cease to judge others by what they wear or do, and get rid of the social construct, this world would be a better place. Homosexuals could get married wherever they wanted just like I can, and we wouldnt have to fight on Capitol Hill to have these rights. From the above analysis the conclusion that there are many different ideas, but in the end they come together to show that although we have different ideas we can have ideas of our own.