Welcome to our course blog—“Justice, Gender, Sexuality”! In this space, you’ll have the chance to reflect on our course reading, ask questions, interact with each other and build a virtual community to complement our classroom space. For this first post, I’d like to invite you to do two things: First, tell us more about yourself. What do you think we should know about you as we begin this semester together? You might consider these questions: Who are you? How do you identify? Where are you from? To whom do you belong? What communities are you a part of? What values or beliefs do you hold dear? Or, share some other facet about yourself that you think is significant. You might also consider telling us more about why you decided to take this course, and what you hope to learn from it.
Then, please reflect on the reading assigned for class. Given what you’ve read, what do you think queer theories can do for us? Or, put another way, what does Donald Hall mean by this word, “queer”? Which meanings or sense of this word resonates with you? Or, what confuses you about this term or reading? What questions do you have?
Aim for at least 250 words in your comment to this post. Make sure to take time to edit it for clarity and correctness. I look forward to reading what you have to say!
I was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois which is close to Chicago. The High School I attended encompasses both Oak Park and River Forest which means that lower class students and upper and middle class students were thrown together but not always integrated. As a result of this there is an achievement gap when it comes to race (mostly white students are in honors classes and students of color were largely placed in college prep classes). The school became aware of this and began many programs related to diversity and uniting students of many different backgrounds. I think this is where my interest in Gender Studies began. I was involved in these programs and a club called “Students for Peace and Justice” where I began to learn about Peace, Justice, Gender, Race, Sexuality and more. Since then I have been studying WGS at Regis. I think queer theories can help us understand not only issues of gender, sexuality, attraction and more but also the ways in which it is difficult for us all to push against what is normal for the sake of living our true identity. In reading this introduction to Queer Theory I am left wondering why it is not more widespread, if it were would people be more tolerant and accepting of those that don’t fit their expectation of the norm (what is normal anyway). After finishing the introduction I am interested in learning more about when it was first called Queer Theory and the history of that term.
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Thank you, Maddy, for your comment! It sounds like your experience in high school has shaped you in important ways and helped you become more aware of some important issues. Your focus on the ways in which queer helps us see and resist the norms of our work is very important, an issue we'll come back to frequently this semester.
DeleteGood afternoon! My name is Yael, and I identify as straight. I am also a dedicated ally of the LGBTQ+ community since I have family and friends who identify with the community! I am from Boulder, Colorado and have lived there for the past three years. I am a part of a variety of Jewish communities, with my most recent being the University of Denver Hillel and the URJ Kutz Camp staff network. To me, one broad belief is the source of my actions, which is the performance of Tikkun Olam (means "to repair the world" in Hebrew). I always try to do something good for the benefit of others so that the world can be a bit of a better place to live in, even if it is as tiny as holding the door for someone or as big as lobbying to my Congressmen.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the questions on the reading, from what I understood, I think Donald Hall wants us to emphasize that the term "queer" does not mean one thing. He is guiding us in this experience of how the term is used to describe oneself and how to use it to be described as something different. He probably uses the term to mean normalizing "queerness" within the academic world. I was confused though on how it could actually be used as a verb and noun. For the verb section, is it because the terms under the LGBTQ+ umbrella are evolving as time goes on, and it is a way to describe that change for someone's sexuality?
Thank you, Yael, for your comment. I appreciate knowing more about your connections to our course material and that there are people in your life you who identify in some with the LGBTQIA+ community. I always find it helpful to know more about the larger contexts from which we approach "academic" material. You're right, too, to emphasize the many meanings and possibilities of a word like queer. I'm curious: Which meanings did you find yourself more drawn to, and why? And as we discuss more in class, I hope we'll clarify the different ways we can use the term.
DeleteI am Caitlyn Caniglia from Omaha, Nebraska. I went to an all girls high school which has impacted me greatly as to where I am now. I came into college wanting to study nursing, which is now crazy to me, but thought it was where I was meant to be. However, upon arriving at Regis I learned about the service impact in the curriculum I was strongly reconsidering my major. I was also enrolled in a human rights course at the time which pushed me even more towards the Peace and Justice program. I was unsure, but in the back of my mind being a lawyer for a nonprofit organization was always there. I was too scared as to whether or not I would be able to achieve this, whether or not I was truly good enough to achieve my goal. The only way I could figure this out though was to drop the nursing path that I was not passionate about and pursue what would truly make me happy. At the end of my first semester freshman year I decided to change my major to what I was truly passionate about, Peace and Justice and Pre-law. The next year I took my first women and gender studies course. This encouraged me to think about things in a new way. The course made me enjoy women and gender studies so much, that I decided to add a minor in the department. Overall, my major and minors have changed but they have made me understand who I want to be and I can’t wait to see how they push me further.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Caitlyn, for your comment. It sounds like the course on human rights really impacted you--so glad you've found your way to PJ! I appreciate knowing all these facets to your intellectual development and how you came to PJ and WGS. Make sure to read the directions fully for these posts, too. I'd be curious to read more about how you're making sense of the term queer, especially as it is defined and described in our reading.
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ReplyDeleteMy name is Tania Garcia, I was born and raised in the Rocky Mountains specifically, Leadville, Colorado. Growing up in a small town can be quiet, peaceful even comforting but you’re also shielded and somewhat naive to everything that occurs outside your little town. If your family and friends don’t know about it, then you’re probably not going to learn and for that matter immerse yourself into it either. Nevertheless, I’ve always been highly concerned and involved in immigration issues, it is of great significance to me and loved ones. During my time at Regis, I’ve learned that there lies common ground and various points of intersection between one social justice issue and another. I know that I cannot become an invested advocate for all of them, but I can learn about some and emphasize that they’re all important. For those same reasons, I’m a firm believer in equity - giving all people the adequate amount of resources and opportunities to achieve an even playing field.
ReplyDeleteReading this first section of Queer Theories can help us understand that queer, like many aspects of our life cannot be individually categorized or understood through a single definition/state of being. Claiming it to be static or a specific-driven term, at least to Donald Hall, is problematic because it normalizes the term, contradicting it’s “critique and work to undermine” other “normalizing forces”. I appreciate this perspective because it provides a complex yet comprehensive explanation of queer theories, which I haven’t encountered before. I would like to further read or discuss what points or ideas people within the field avoid to explore/write about.
Thank you, Tania, for your comment. As someone who also grew up in a very small town, I appreciate your reflection on what it was like to grow up in Leadville. They are unique places, to be sure. You're right, too, to emphasize the mercurial nature of queerness, its ever shifting meaning, one that hopes to evade a normalizing impulse, a theme we'll talk much more about as the course continues.
DeleteI am Mollie from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I think that the most important thing for people to know about me is that I am a blind person. I have a guide dog named Ferris, that everyone met in our first class. I am a Junior and Peace and Justice Studies major.
ReplyDeleteHall defines queer as an adjective, noun, and verb. He explains that the adjective form of queer is a description of a person that does not fit into social norms that were put in place during the Victorian era. Hall describes queer as a noun to be a person that does not fit into the “hierarchized binary.” He further explains that according to social norms that queer as a noun is something that you shouldn’t want to be. Queer as a verb is described as the action of falling out of social norms and questioning them. He says that his intention is to “queer” us, meaning that he wants to push us out of our typical social norm comfort zones and challenge us to question them. In conclusion, queer theories will
Thank you, Mollie, for your comment. It's good to have you back in class! And your summary of Hall's definitions and explorations of the term queer are accurate and insightful, especially in the way that you emphasize the resistance to social norms and binary ways of thinking. I'd be curious, too, what do you think of these ideas? Feel free to follow up your analysis/explanation with some reflecting on what these ideas might mean to you.
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ReplyDeleteHey there, my name is Laura and I am a Colorado native! I was born in Denver, but I currently live in Golden. Growing up, I have always felt very sheltered from the issues that are going on around me. I came to Regis specifically for the peace & justice studies program not really knowing what to expect. However, having been in the program for almost 4 years, I feel very grateful to be apart of the peace & justice studies program. Not only has it pushed me to become more aware of the injustices that are going on in the world, but it has also allowed me to find what it is I want to do after graduation. Although I identify as straight, I have close friends that are apart of the LGBTQ community. I want to do my best to try and become more educated on the issues that people in the LGBTQ community face. This is the main reason why I decided to enroll in this course, I hope to keep learning more about the different issues that the LGBTQ community faced and are still facing today through the course of the semester.
After reading Hall’s introduction, it appears as though there isn’t just one definition of the word “queer”, it has evolved tremendously throughout the years and everyone interprets this word differently. Hall even mentions how this word could be used as a verb. With queer theories, it forces us to challenge and even disrupts normativity, binaries, and the categories that we are put into. By doing so will help guide towards a world inclusive world. I was curious as to how the word “queer” went from being defined as “across” to people using it as the umbrella term for LGBTQ+. Moreover, I am also interested in learning more about the philosopher and theorist who contributed to queer theories.
Thank you, Laura, for your comment. We are grateful for you, too! And I appreciate how you're taking control of your education and learning about things you might not have previously. Always important to challenge ourselves in this way. And as I've commented to others above, I think it's very important for us all to reflect on and come to understand why we care about queer issues. For many, it's about the relationships we have with folks who identify in some capacity with the LBGTQIA+ community, and that's is a great place to start!
DeleteHi all, I'm Regi. I happily identify as queer myself and have done so openly for the past five years of my life! I am from Memphis, TN, but my concept of home has definitely evolved since moving here. Even though I did come out and had a great response from a variety of people involved in my life, think I felt like I needed to hold on to the "old" version of me that was silent and needed to pretend I liked certain things. I think in growing up and especially moving to Denver I have found home in queerness. I have been able to explore what it really means for me to be queer in what is honestly a more open and accepting culture up here. So while Memphis will always be home for me, Denver is home right now because it is facilitating a space for me to be myself in ways that I have not previously been able to do with such ease.
ReplyDeleteLearning about myself and my people is something that I have always wanted to do. I feel that as a black and queer person in this country the history of my people has been hidden and stamped and erased as much as possible, so I am always interested in writers and activists who are adding the color back into our history and building consciousness from it. What I most liked about Hall is the sort of fluidity that comes in the understanding of queerness as a general term or a way of being. I think that the whole point of queerness is that as a person with multiple identities queerness serves as a lens of acceptance for being different. I like to think of queerness sometime synonymous with boundless, a way to understand that you can be plural, that you can be different and yet still identify heavily with the same term and the same culture.
Thank you, Regi, for your comment. I really appreciate your thoughts on how coming to Denver/Regis has helped you find a home in queerness. For many queer people, the chance to start anew in a place can offer this kind of possibility, and I'm so glad you've found this path. And your interest in fluidity, multiplicity, and boundlessness are all important facets of queerness that I hope you'll be able to explore more fully this semester.
DeleteMy name is Eileen and I have lived many places and do not consider any particular one home. I did however always have a home with other members of the LGBT+ community. I started to realize I also like girls in addition to boys when I was only 8. At the time I had no idea what the B word meant and I thought I was broken, not because I liked girls, but because I couldn’t choose. Having lived in Arizona during the years I was discovering my sexuality, I was taught by my conservative peers that not only was gay wrong it was a choice and it was one with bad consequences. Over the years I met other LGBT+ folks in classes, pride parades, and in friends who were much braver than I. It was a group of people in which I could ask questions and be answered with ‘that’s normal’. When I finally learned what being bi meant- I realized I fit into some of the many different categories people choose to define themselves as under the big B. In regards to the reading I really identified with the way Hall describes queer theories as not being of one voice, with many overlapping qualities; they are fractured, divergent narratives that are developing, changing and struggling. Not only does this help outline queer theories as complex, but as human, as normal, as a place in which many answers reside but so do questions of the unanswering type. To me queer theory suggests another way of looking inside the parts of the LGBT+ community that I would not otherwise be exposed to.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Eileen, for your comment. I appreciate learning more about your own experience and how you've come to identify. And your sense of meeting others like you and learning how to embrace your identity, both in terms of visibility and normalizing it--so important! And yes, queerness is very much about rendering visible those aspects of sexuality and gender that have often gone unnoticed, ignored, or blatantly disregarded.
DeleteMy name is Sydney Monahan, and I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. I am very glad to have gone away for college and love exploring all Denver has to offer, but being away has helped me to better appreciate Omaha and what it did for my childhood. I went to a Catholic grade school for eight years and then on to an all girls Catholic high school. I am very grateful to have had this upbringing because I think it shaped who I am to some degree. From eighth grade, on through high school, being so immersed in religion and private schools, I really saw all the things I disagreed with that were happening around me. This, in a way, helped me develop my outspoken opinions and also gave me a new sense of self.
ReplyDeleteBased on the Hall reading, I think queer theories can help a severely understudied topic be better understood to outsiders and even insiders. Queer is defined as an adjective, noun, and verb. The definitions have changed and developed over time, and progressed as our society has progressed. My favorite part about the word queer is that I would categorize it as an umbrella term. A lot of queer theory revolves around inclusivity, so it only makes sense that queer would be an all encompassing broad term. My only confusion with this reading revolves around who was behind all of these developments and really turning queer theory into a concrete subject of study. And also why and how they did it, despite the criticism. I hope to learn more about what really sparked the change from before queer theory, to where we are now, and what we need to do to progress even further.
Sydney Monahan
DeleteThank you for your comment. I appreciate knowing more about where you've come from and how these experiences have shaped you. As well, queer can be used in this way, as an inclusive and umbrella term. As you read more, I'll be curious to see what you think of some of the other definitions.
DeleteHi! My name is Andrea and I was the first in my family to be born in the United States, more specifically born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. I would say home for me has transformed into the Denver area because of the freedom and experiences I have lived through that has shaped me into a more mature and independent person. A community that I will always hold close and dear to me would always be my family and friends in Arizona but also the rest of the community in my parents' hometowns in Mexico. Being apart from immediate family has led me to explore what the word identity and justice holds meaning to. I identify as a straight Mexican American woman. This identity has shaped my values and beliefs of pride but also urgency for equality and justice in a time where some voices are disregarded simply because of skin color. As I continue to learn about the issues in the community through my Women and Gender Studies minor, I hope to become more educated on issues that the LGBTQ community face and how I could be an ally to this community.
ReplyDeleteHall outlines what I hope to use at the end of this class in the introduction of his work when stating, "recognizing such complications does not mean that we must sit in sullen silence or resign ourselves to the impossibility of action". There is not one way to define queer as there is not one way we can categorize ourselves. I liked how he defines it as an adjective, noun, and verb because it shows how they all intersect with each other but are also separate just like how each of our own experiences may interconnect but are completely different.
Thank you, Andrea, for your comment. I appreciate learning more about your background and heritage. To be the first person in your family to be born in the U.S. is an important part of who you are to share, and I can see how it's shaped your in important ways. And as you suggest, sometimes one experience of marginalization can help open us up to wanting to understand the experiences and realities of another. And I hope we'll find ways to articulate more fully what it means to be able to take action in the midst of uncertainty and fluidity.
DeleteHello, Y'all (my Texan vernacular will never really escape me)! I am very excited to be joining the Justice, Gender, and Sexuality course! I carry the hope that my late response will be viewed with indulgence and that my response will still be considered contribution. I have just returned from some time in the West Bank and inner Palestinian Territories (aptly just called Palestine, I suppose).
ReplyDeleteI grew up far from Denver and Palestine; home--though this is an term of assignment that I tarry with--is West Texas: Amarillo more specifically. I grew up on a ranch in a small farm town with a dismal population of less than 10,000. I had a very conservative upbringing. I did not come out to my parents, rather, I was found out by my parents around the age of 14 (though memory suggests that I felt much older than I really was) right after finishing the 8th grade. It was not a good time for me. I have no doubts that over time--hoping an environment of sharing will be engendered and nurtured--I will share my narrative in myriad fashions. Sometime in High School I joined the Debate Team. I would go on to be one of the nation's most recognized and competitive debaters. I become known for my championing of queer frameworks and queer centered argumentation; this lead to a competitively fueled passion for the works of not only Butler, but also Anzaldúa. I consider myself to be an amateur queer theorist.
Having read quite the fair share of queer literature, I am very excited to read Hall. I find Hall's conceptualization of queer to be fitting; allowing for fluidity and straying from the natural trap of queer exegesis: to define or not to define. Truly, any adherence to a rigid austere definition of queerness is in danger of lacking fluidity, a central tenant to the queer ontology, necessarily.
Thank you, Nick, for your comment. It sounds like you had an intense coming out experience in relation to your family. I do hope that as the course progresses you'll continue to feel like you can share parts of your story that you think would enhance our understanding of yourself and the issues we're studying. It also sounds like you took that challenge and have used in it some way to fuel your passion for debate, which is an admirable response. Your emphasis, too, on fluidity is essential for understanding what this terms means or could mean.
DeleteHi Everyone! My name is Sally Andarge and I am a junior this year studying communication and peace and justice studies with an emphasis in public relations. I am from Aurora, Colorado but I am a first generation American and identify more with my Ethiopian culture than I do my American citizenship. Having grown up in a strict, sheltered, Christian home I am painfully aware of my lack of knowledge and experience when it comes to LGBTQ+ communities.
ReplyDeleteThat lack of knowledge and experience is part of the reason why I am enrolled in this course. I hope to learn more and become a real ally, which includes knowing my role and the community that I am serving. One thing that I found really interesting about Donald Halls “Queer theories” analysis is the emphasis that he puts on theory being plural. He works very hard to make sure that every embodied experience that is encompassed by the word queer is included making it very clear that there is not a one size fits all theory for all the different voices and sometimes overlapping perspective of the queer community.
Thank you, Sally, for your comment. I appreciate learning more about how you identify and for many Americans like yourself, your family's culture of origin can be as powerful if not more powerful than your status as an American citizen. From this tension can emerge really important understandings of what it means for any of us to be living in this particular nation in this particular moment, so I'm glad you're bringing this to bear on our course. And yes, your observation about there not being one size that fits all is especially important for our understanding of queerness.
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