Browsing by Subject "Queer"
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Item Common ground: performing gay shame, solidarity and social change(2015-02) Winn-Lenetsky, Jonah AriThis dissertation examines Gay Shame activism of the late 1990s and early 2000s through case studies of three distinct performance sites: Gay Shame San Francisco, Kvisa Shchora, a Tel Aviv based collective, and Euroshame (London). Analyzing the performance work and self-articulations of these three groups, I demonstrate how their performative and rhetorical use of shame attempts to both critique the "pride" of mainstream LGBT groups and to forge solidarity between queer communities and others marginalized by neoliberal economies and nationalist rhetoric through what I refer to as "hyperidentification". These performances can, at their best, be aesthetically challenging and creative interventions that reimagine and place queer identities in ideological and, at times, actionable alliance with marginalized others; while at their worst they imagine themselves in solidarity with other communities, but ignore or fail to account for the perspectives, agendas and values of those communities. My exploration of these sites examines the limits of solidarity and empathy and investigates the contributions of queer activist performance to debates regarding the ethics and efficacy of political performance within the disciplines of Theatre and Performance Studies.Item Conceptualizing the Needs of Gender Variant Consumers(2018-08) Pettys-Baker, RobertGender variant people are a segment of consumers that are underrecognized in both the academic literature and the retail environment. As people who defy the gender norms held by western society, they have unique attributes that set themselves apart from their cisgender consumers. Therefore, the interest of this research was to start examining these consumers, and make suggestions for where to go from here for both academics and retailers alike. Utilizing a qualitative methodology, a survey was distributed to non-cis individuals asking them about their shopping experiences and various aspects related to same. From this population, five interviews were conducted to better illuminate the findings of the survey. In the end, a diverse sample of non-cis identities were represented, and demonstrated clear needs that aren’t being addressed, including unique problems and those shared by their cisgender peers. In looking through the data, five key themes came to the forefront: A Sense of Belonging, Something for Every Body, Rethinking In-Store Design, Welcome and Affirm Don’t Pander, and Interaction Anxiety. From these themes it became evident that gender variant consumers are disconnected from the current retail landscape for many reasons. They do not find products suited to their needs or body shape, and must compromise on fit in order to buy the clothing that expresses their individuality. Interactions with others while shopping comes with a sense of danger because of the worry of confrontation by transphobic appeal. This leads consumers to occasionally shop at odd hours and avoid others in store. Overall, the findings point to a need for the participants to feel like they belong in retail spaces, with clear signs that a store has their interests in mind. Being able to see themselves in a product, whether through representation in advertisements or non-cis mannequins, was important to some because of this. However, the concern over true support vs. cash-grab pandering was an issue mentioned by some. So, those looking to appeal to this market should keep that in mind. However, given the lack of research on this population, the reason as to why these themes came to the forefront could only be hypothesized. Acknowledging this, future work is discussed at length to give others a sense of how they might contribute to addressing the lack of non-cis inclusion in both academic and retail spaces.Item Finding Purpose: Identifying Factors that Motivate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender College Student Engagement at a Two-Year Institution(2016-08) Anderson, JeffreyIn recent decades, the lives of gay Americans have been pushed to the center stage of political and cultural debate. Bearing the brunt of much of this discourse are high school and college-aged LGBT youth. In spite of, and perhaps in response to, the attacks they often experience, LGBT college students are investing energy in campus activities such as queer student groups and organizations. This study sought to identify, through both qualitative and quantitative methods, the factors that motivate students at a two-year community college to become involved in a campus LGBT student organization. An anonymous survey was completed by 31 students with varying levels of involvement with the student organization. Five dominant themes, Community, Identity, Safety, Education, and Civic Engagement, were identified as motivators for ten students that participated in interviewed for the study. In addition, faculty and staff were interviewed with the goal of deciphering how closely administrative views of campus climate matched those of student study participants, with discussion framed by the five motivation themes. The results of this study provide a glimpse into the lives of queer students at a two-year institution, a population that is vastly under-represented in existing empirical literature. Queer development theories and literature that explores topics such as college student engagement, cultural diversity, and campus climate are applied to the study results. The findings’ implications for higher education professionals are presented, along with recommendations for researchers who seek a greater understanding of queer students at two-year institutions and what motivates them to be involved in campus activities that are tied to their orientation and identity.Item Fugitive life: race, gender, and the rise of the neoliberal-carceral state(2013-05) Dillon, StephenFugitive Life: Race, Gender, and the Rise of the Neoliberal-Carceral State examines the forms of knowledge produced by anti-racist and queer women activists in the 1970s as they contested the demise of the Keynesian-welfare state and the unprecedented expansion of the prison system in the United States. As economic policies based on deindustrialization, deregulation, and privatization left cities in ruins, mass incarceration emerged as a solution to the unrest produced by a new wave of racialized poverty. In short, the social state of the mid-twentieth century turned into a penal state by the mid-1980s. Although some scholars have analyzed this process at the level of social and economic policy, what remains unexamined are the intimate ways in which gender and sexuality have been integrated into, and affected by the entrenchment of racialized state power in the form of mass incarceration. Fugitive Life turns to culture--the memoirs, communiqués, literature, films, prison writing, and poetry of leftist women activists in the 1970s--to provide an analysis of the centrality of race, gender, and sexuality to a new mode of state power that I term "the neoliberal-carceral state." By contextualizing feminist, queer, and anti-racist activism within neoliberal economics and law and order politics, Fugitive Life offers a reinterpretation of post-1960s activism in relation to the emergence of neoliberalism and the rise of mass incarceration. Throughout the project, I document how leftist feminist and queer social movements theorized and challenged the ways that deindustrialization and privatization required incarceration. I argue that women activists in the 1970s anticipated and challenged the formation of the neoliberal-carceral state.Item Gay Bar Culture and Drinking in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and Two-Spirited Community(2024-04-10) Dolan, Eleanor; Ostrander, NomiGay bars have long been a staple of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and Two-Spirited (LGBTQIA2S+) community. They were often the only spaces for LGBTQIA2S+ individuals to meet others, connect with their community, and engage in activism (Escoffier, 1997). Yet today the LGBTQIA2S+ community engages in disproportionately high levels of drinking (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2017). This study examines the impact of gay bar culture of drinking in the LGBTQIA2S+ community through a survey of 60 participants from Minnesota who identify as members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. The majority of participants reported no change in their drinking behavior between LGBTQIA2S+ and non-LGBTQIA2S+ spaces. Yet many expressed a need for more sober LGBTQIA2S+ spaces. Participants also expressed feeling safe in LGBTQIA2S+ spaces and enjoying their time in them. More research is required on the need for sober LGBTQIA2S+ spaces and the benefits they bring.Item In A God-Fearing House: A Sibling Study of Conservative Christian Families with LGBTQ Offspring(2022-06) Okrey Anderson, SloanManuscript one explores the religious family environment and parent-child relationships for LGBTQ people from the perspectives of both the LGBTQ person and one of their siblings. The aim of this first study is to describe the experiences of LGBTQ people growing up in non-affirming Christian families, including their role in the family system, their parent-child relationships, and their experiences with identity disclosure. Manuscript one also addresses the question of theological affirmation and whether it is relevant to LGBTQ parent-child relationship quality. Manuscript two focuses on sibling relationships in the context of non-affirming Christian families. The aim of this study is to identify and describe barriers to supportive sibling relationships for LGBTQ people both before and after identity disclosure. Manuscript two also seeks to address the question of whether parental non-affirmation has an impact on sibling relationships. Finally, in light of the importance of family support, there have been calls for more research and more evidence-based interventions with families of LGBTQ people. However, research suggests that the motivations and mechanisms of anti-LGBTQ sentiment may be vastly different between Black and White American Christians. Thus, the aim of manuscript three is to explore and describe characteristics of Black and White American churches in the context of existing literature on these sub-cultures.Item “Queering Borders”: War, Diaspora, Gender And Sexuality Among Afghans In The United States(2019-08) Munhazim, Ahmad QaisHow did a nation known for a gender-neutral language and celebration of same-sex love through literature and poetry became a masculinist landscape as it learned to live through wars, and how do these wars continue in people’s lives thousands of miles away from their homeland? How was the sense of community and safety created by Afghans who settled in the United States during the political turmoil of the Cold War crushed by the US’s “War on Terror”? How did the lives of Afghans become engulfed by a continuous regime of surveillance that produces unsettling conditions; temporary and fragile homes marked by frequent violence; subjects defined by mistrust, anxieties and fears, and ultimately vigilant masculinities where the surveilled subjects surveil themselves? In this dissertation, I address these and many other entangled questions through stories of people who have lived through multiple wars and displacements, and who have actively refused imposed borders. Through these stories of lived experiences and border crossings, this work asks that we rethink rigid meanings of wars, diasporas and their complex relationships with gender and sexuality, while also complicating the imaginary borders between the researcher and research subjects. My particular contribution is a rich ethnographic study of gendered subjectivities among war diasporas. I argue that it is not possible to adequately understand the norms and performances of gender and sexuality and the profound ways in which they shape the lived experiences of diasporas, without first learning to listen carefully to the nuanced stories of these diasporic communities. These narratives offer complex ways to understand performances of gender and sexuality in the context of war and displacement. Grappling with these stories and narratives of many Afghans in diaspora, I use the pages of this dissertation to queer stable borders of nations, war, peace, gender and sexuality both methodologically and conceptually. Through a critical ethnography of war, diaspora and performances of gender and sexuality, this work strives to become deeply attentive to a wide variation of experiences and differences that accompany people’s lives as they become displaced, as they cross borders, and as they form a diaspora out of these ever-unfolding events and processes. I hope that this dissertation will help to strengthen the foundation for interdisciplinary scholars who are interested in advancing this critical and desperately needed research.Item Red Father, Pink Son: Queer Socialism and Post-socialist Queer Critiques(2017-06) Ye, ShanaThe dissertation examines how the affect, memory and trauma of socialism have informed queer life and LGBT activism. Queer sexuality in China is often articulated through a teleological narrative of transition predicated on the dichotomy of socialist oppression vis-à-vis post-socialist liberation. It depicts queer subject as victim par excellence of state violence and pre- or anti-modern traditions, and renders queer practices as radical and embodying notions of progress to transform China from a backward socialist totalitarian “other” to a democratic neoliberal world power. Such making of “Queer China,” I argue, is ironically complicit with Cold War formation and its ongoing impacts on today’s neoliberal gay normalization. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including historical documents, oral histories, cultural productions and ethnographic research, the dissertation unpacks multifaceted impacts of socialist history, memory, trauma, and geopolitical struggles on shaping queerness in order to reframe dominant Cold War culture in the studies of transnational sexualities and to rebuild a radical queer politics freed of commercialism, middle-class assimilation and imperialism under the name of queer liberation. The dissertation reevaluates notions of sexual repression, state violence, progress, visibility and agency to shed light on theoretical and methodological debates on ethnocentrism, othering and normalization. The dissertation argues that a critical engagement with queer geopolitics and situated knowledge from the temporal, regional, ideological and epistemological margins can contribute to the provincialization of “Western” sexualities and decolonization of queer studies derived from US-inflicted modes of sexuality and a Western-based system of modernity.