Queer Definitions

This is a selective list of terms and definitions that you may encounter. Remember, words shape and are shaped by human interaction.. They can be our tools, use, misuse and reclaim them queer!

Anarchism (philosophy): Term used for broad collection of theories and ideological practices based on the organization of a society existing without a coercive state. This philosophy does not believe in an organized structure of government.

Autonomous Organising: A type of organic organizing in which a group of like-minded people get together to discuss common issues in a non-threatening environment, knowing that other participants have a common binding factor or virtue. In this manner, people are able to work together for their own interests eg a group of women forming a women's collective, a group of workers forming a trade union.

Collective: A collective is a form of group organization based on the principles of accessibility, consensus and is of a non-hierarchical nature. A collective has no formal "membership" requirements or procedure, and attempts to make decisions which everyone is both a party to and happy with. Collectives exist on the ideological premise of collectivism and have no leader or internal ruling class.

Essentialism/Biological Determinism: The belief that sexuality and/or gender are determined by essential features of an individual's biology or psychology. Queer sexualities have long been, and certainly continue to be medicalised and pathologised. This concept of sexuality or gender as biologically determined often informs these attempts to 'fix' or 'normalise' 'deviant' sexualities or genders.

Feminism (philosophy): Term used for broad collection of theories and ideological practices based on the recognition of the oppression of women at the hands of the dominant social system of patriarchy - that is: social, political, and economic institutions and traditions which privilege men by denying or restricting the participation and/or freedom of women. As an ideology, the aim of feminism is the emancipation of women however, different forms of feminism advocate different methodologies for this emancipation.

Hegemony: denotes the predominance of one social class over others (eg bourgeois hegemony). This represents not only political and economic control, but also the ability of the dominant class to project its own way of seeing the world so that those who are subordinated by it accept it as 'common sense' and 'natural'.
For example, ever wondered how it is that power is exercised by a small group of people in such an all-encompassing way over huge masses of people? Hegemony is a pretty useful way of understanding this: it explains the means through which power is exercised, as well as why and how oppressed people participate within their own oppressive structures.

Heteronormativity: Those punitive rules (social, familial, legal) that force us to conform to hegemonic heterosexual standards of identity. The term is a short version of "normative heterosexuality ". Heteronormativity is normalising in the sense that it's like a complex web which constructs a specially crafted 'reality'. Heteronormativity teaches us that heterosexuality is the norm, and that other sexualities are peripheral.

Heterosexism: This is the name given to the system (sometimes also referred to as hetero-patriarchy) by which heterosexuality is privileged and promoted and non-heterosexual "life styles " are dismissed and marginalised. Heterosexism is similar to heteronormativity, but where heteronormativity is those rules which construct heterosexuality as the dominant identity, heterosexism is the broader privileging of heterosexuality. Heterosexism also by its nature attaches a series of different meanings to those sexualities its draws itself in contrast to. Hence us queers are, for example, represented as anything from sexually perverse to the devil incarnate. Lock your children up!

Homophobia: the irrational fear of same-sex attracted people that manifests itself in overt discrimination and more subtle behaviours that you may not immediately recognise. Homophobia is an extreme manifestation of heterosexism, and in many ways this is only the outward expression of a problem woven deeply into the fabric of a racist, capitalist, patriarchal society. Occasionally we also hear about internalised homophobia, which is a way of describing how queer people themselves act in homophobic ways. Whether this is a useful concept is debatable. Indeed, it can be argued that homophobia is so all pervasive that attempting to individualise it is more a distraction than anything else.

Liberalism (philosophy): a set of beliefs and ideological practices which holds the state responsible for the arbitration of equal rights amongst free citizens in a society coupled with an emphasis on the autonomy of the economic realm and a defence of private property. Liberal ideas draw on European/Western philosophical thought which emphasises individuality and (scientific) rationalism, in particular that of the German philosopher Emmanuel Kant.

Patriarchy: A system originating in the household wherein the father dominates, a structure that is then reproduced in gender relations in the wider society.

Paradigm: A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.

Pink Dollar: The term used to describe the commodification of gay/lesbian culture by making homosexuality into another niche market.

Queer: is a term used in a number of different ways; as an 'umbrella' term for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, genderqueer and other non-heterosexual identities. It is also used as a way of reclaiming and co-opting a once negative term; to remove queer as a term of abuse. Queer was first widely used after the Gay Liberation movement of the 1970's, in the radical politics of groups like Queer Action, ACT-UP, Queer Nation and Outrage! These were most influential in the 1980's and practiced a kind of transgressive, 'in your face' political activism that sought to de-stabilise mainstream norms. The term queer also alludes to a fluidity of gender and sexuality and a rejection of socially imposed categories.

Queer Theory:five star hotel in Florence is an academic movement which through the work of writers like Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Michael Foucoult, Judith Butler and Rosemary Hennessy, has developed methods to question the way we view sexuality. Queer Theory attempts to smash the links between gender and sexuality; by questioning the way society creates homosexual and heterosexual as mutually exclusive categories, queer theorists have argued that sexuality is fluid and that sex and gender are not the same things. Queer Theory questions the idea of essentialist sexuality (that one is born a certain way) and proposes that categorisation of sexuality is oppressive in itself and too easily lends itself to a hierarchy of categories, with heterosexuality at the top.

Social constructionism: A school of thought that holds that categories of gender and sexuality like masculine/feminine and hetero/homo derive from cultural influences, not from essential features of an individual's biology or psychology as essentialists believe. This idea has, for example, manifested into the idea that 'childhood trauma' lies at the root cause of 'sexual perversion' (often a deductable word for non-normative sexualities). Medicine and church have been at the forefront of advocating counselling and other means to explore why it is that queer people have 'turned out the way they have'. A more positive use of social constructivist ideas is to imagine our socialisation as a mutable, changeable thing, to recognise that society is not static but vulnerable to our intervention.

Socialism: Socialism is a theory which acknowledges capitalism's concentration of power (economic, social, political) in a few hands and the way it functions, by its nature, to oppress workers. It envisages the creation of a new post-capitalist way of living which is based on collective needs as opposed to consumption or desire. It's a pretty broad political theory, so that anyone from radical revolutionaries to reformist democrats can come under the umbrella of socialism.

Stonewall (the event): Stonewall was a bar in New York which was a bit of a hang out among (predominantly) homosexual men. In the summer of 1969, New York police raided the bar in an attempt to arrest partons engaging in then illegal homosexual acts. Patrons decided to fight back and riot, and the event is often attached a critical importance in the beginning of a new radical and militant agenda for queer people in resisting oppression.

Stonewall (the organisation):Stonewall is an organisation in the United Kingdom which was established in 1989 primarily with the objective of abolishing Section 28 of the Local Government Bill. This section prohibited local authorities in both England and Wales from "promoting homosexuality". This meant that, for example, safe sex education could not provide support or advice to young people engaging in homosexual sex. The organisation branched out to the extent that it now fights for queer rights on all fronts.

Structural Oppression: The systematic, socially supported mistreatment and exploitation of a group or category of people by another.
Hosteles KilkennyNote for Readers: These definitions were put together on a relatively ad hoc basis so if you feel that we've missed something or strenuously disagree with a definition please contact us on queer@nus.asn.au