Over the past few years Queer has become something that society is slowly learning to embrace. Queer is defined in adjective form as something strange or odd, and in verb form as spoiled or ruined. But in society the word queer has been twisted and turned by the heterosexual community into a negative interpretation directly focused towards the homosexual community, specifically the males. Later, however, it did begin to shift towards both the male and the female homosexual community. During the 70s the liberation movement came through and began to change the whole way we look at Queer, and thus the theatrical world, took in their meaning of Queer, but the phrase Queer Theory was not well known until the 1990s (Piantato, G).
Viewing the topic as a whole we can now see that the topic of Queer theory relates to more than just attraction to the opposite sex. Examples being hermaphroditism, cross dressing, gender correction etc. But directly thinking about Queer theory is a bit of a challenge. There are over several theories out there and many of them tend to contradict one another. Because of this it has often been criticized for being too difficult to understand, because of the many difficult words that are used. But the majority of Queer theorist have agreed that it is impossible to define what the true Queer theory actually is.
Niki Sullivan an American rock and roll musician says “It is a discipline that refuses to be disciplined,” which says a lot being that this quote is a contradiction in itself. So when thinking about Queer theory it is best not to try to fully understand it because it can not be understood, but that is not to say it is not something that you can not understand (Piantato, G.). While trying to understand what is culturally expectable when it comes to sexuality and knowing the sex of an individual it is said that we must first explore how many western cultures came to define the sex of individuals.
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Over time the question of sexuality has become the way of life. It determines the view one has in any aspects of a “normal” human relationship, including ones happiness and the connection between two partners. Not much of exploring sexuality is taught in the schools in this time period. The thought of ecstasy and transgression is viewed by people who have their nose stuck up, with their critical eyes scorned with hate, when there were generations before that were once supportive in the sexual revolution. Those who now disapprove the sexuality talk, argue their concerns of sexual violence and gender differences, as well as the most issued risk of HIV infection.
The discussion of HIV alone has had scholars constantly in a discussion. The issue starts with the constant research of HIVs. An HIV is a human immunodeficiency virus. The way that it is defines is in the following way. H is for Human, meaning that the disease specifically affects humans. I is of immunodeficiency, this is the actual viruses that attacks the immune system of the individual. An immune system is the body’s only defense system against infection, examples of infection include bacteria and viruses. As HIV attacks the body the immune system defects and no longer works properly. And finally V is for virus.
A virus is a general type of a germ that is way to small to be seen by the naked eye, thus for scientist must use a microscope (Human Rights Campaign). HIV is pertained to be incurable, the scientific way it works is as it takes over the immune system it kills CD4 cells or T cells. When the HIV takes over the cell the cell turns into a virus factory, which forces the cell to produce thousands of copies of that virus. As this system is repeating it creates thousands of the same cell, the infected cells do not work as they should so they kill themselves. The loss of all these cells weakens the immune system, which makes it nearly impossible to stay healthy. The virus really affects many gays in the 1970s, mainly in the city of New York.
In fact it was spreading so fast that Sean Strub a homosexual writer and activist who was diagnosed HIV positive since 1980s stated that “Death and dying was such a part of our daily lives” (HIV First Hit the U.S. in New York in 1970, a New Study Finds). Queer theory was introduced to try and help us understand or categorize what it was that we do not understand. But thinking about Queer theory is a completely non normative way of trying to understand. It more refers to a more complex explanation of the gender and sexuality which goes beyond feminism, that directly emphasizes gender identity.
It mostly focuses on the sex and sexuality by considering marginalized identities that are not often mentioned by the hegemonic, the ruling in a political or social context, social culture. They are often defined as queer because disenfranchised identities in the sexual content, can not fit into the views of the over ruling social culture. Judith Butler, and American philosopher, and gender theorist, goes on a rant explaining that this approach does not have the right to define an individual’s gender under the impression of that individual not knowing what gender it is that they belong into, but instead consider the social act that the individual of either or sex must perform (Butler, Judith).
Butler currently words as a Fellowship of the British Academy or otherwise known as the FBA, located in the United Kingdom. She has influenced many including the political philosophy, ethics and fields of the third wave. Since 1993 she has been teaching at the University of California, in Berkeley, there she is now the Maxine Elliot Professor in the department of Comparative Literature. She has easily become one of the many voices that we consider when we are attempting to interpret Queer theory and its relationship in with gender (“Judith Butler”). With all of this being contributed with the thought of Queer theory and how it influenced the way that we view gender, it has also deeply influenced the way we perform in the theater.
The amount of show productions about the Queer community grew at such a rapid rate, and is still growing. Some of the productions that we see now are Rent, Falsetto land, Angels in America (which covers what it is like to have HIV in America as a homosexual), Neaptide, 1986 written by Sarah Daniels, Wig out, 2008 written by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Certain Young Men, 1999 written by Peter Gill, and there are so many more to name. These productions gave the social culture an inside view of what it was like to deal with many of the identity issues, they used all kinds of effects.
Some made the audience feel hate, some played the empathy card, some simply just showed this is how you treat us, and some people understood the message, but as always many were not impressed. As for the actors who were in these productions, gender in casting didn’t seem like a large problem. If need be they could cast a woman to play a male which in conclusion would get the point across to the audience just as well. But the over all message for all productions is if the audience leaves upset then we certainly did something right. Casting according to character in the theater has left an imprint on the Social culture we are constantly trying to change.
Work Cited
- Barker, Meg-John, and Julia Scheele. Queer a Graphic History. Icon, 2016.
- Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, 2015.
- “HIV First Hit the U.S. in New York in 1970, a New Study Finds.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/new-study-shows-hiv-epidemic-started-spreading-new-york-1970-n673371.
- Basics. “HIV/AIDS.” What Is HIV? – HIV/AIDS, 21 June 2005, www.hiv.va.gov/patient/basics/what-is-HIV.asp.
- Human Rights Campaign. “HIV and the LGBTQ Community.” Human Rights Campaign, www.hrc.org/resources/hrc-issue-brief-hiv-aids-and-the-lgbt-community.
- “Judith Butler.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Oct. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Butler.
- Piantato, G. “How Has Queer Theory Influenced the Ways We Think about Gender?” Working Paper of Public Health, vol. 5, no. 1, 2016, doi:10.4081/wpph.2016.6948.
