Critical Response 5

Molly Harney

QS 462

Critical Response 5

5/3/15

I have always heard that Sedgwick's work was and is known as one of the most quintessential and important early works of Queer Theory; after reading her work I understand why. Language, Sedgwick argues, is one of the most dominant forms of power that is impacted on society in terms of relation to sexuality and gender. This idea to me really sets up the thesis for the book as well as the major ideology around Queer Theory. I have always been interested in how language controls and limits individuality and lived experiences. This made me immediately think of Foucault and his ideas around how power is mobile and never stagnant. Language is the same way; words are used in the English language (and western colonial society as a whole) to limit and designate who we are “meant to be”, this in and of itself is a form of biopower. Language is literally mobile. It moves from person to person, ear to ear. Definitions change and dominant powers are usually the ones in control of what language is seen as real or not.

As a whole, the term “coming out of the closet” has always been problematic. For someone who has had to experience the “coming out” process in a very white nuclear family, I can say firsthand that it is overly frustrating. The expectation that you need to make the effort (which for some can be very dangerous) if you are queer in any way or just simply not straight is an example of how heteronormative our language is, and it’s meant to be that way. This is why the reclaiming of words such as queer, is so important to resisting dominant societal ideologies. I had a conversation with someone the other day about the difference between gender and sexuality. It astounded me at how the majority of society sees these two things as being completely one. It took me a long time to explain to this person that these two ideas are not the same; gender is a construct that society places on every person the minute they are born. I have had many conversations like this in the past, but it never gets any less frustrating when I encounter dominant privileged societal norms in language. This lends to Sedgwick’s ideas about how the binary system is problematic. Limiting sexual identity to “homosexual” and heterosexual also limits our ideas on gender and sexuality as separate entities. This is also limiting to gender identity and we as a society need to get past the limitation that gender is only a binary system.