Koordinationen for Kønsforskning > Kvinder, Køn & Forskning > Tidligere numre > 2003 > Nr. 1 2003

Kvinder, Køn & Forskning nr. 1 2003

Skæve køn

INDHOLD

Indledning: Cathrine Egeland og Dorthe Staunæs

ARTIKLER       

Henning Bech: På tværs! En præsentation og kritisk diskussion af “queer-teori”

Sasha Roseneil: Queer Frameworks and Queer Tendencies. Towards an understanding of Postmodern Transformations of Sexuality

Dag Heede: Mærkværdiggørelsen af dansk litteratur: For en ny fordeling af litteraturhistorisk dumhed og blindhed

Vibeke Pedersen: Det skæve talkshow og det skæve køn. Camp, drag og kvindelighed 

Bente Meyer: Ekstraordinære kroppe: køn, krop og invaliditet i nyere disability teori

Dorthe Staunæs: Skæve køn, skæve etniciteter

Replikker

Robin May Schott: Queer Theory: A Feminist Philosophical Commentary

Bonnie C. Barr og Maja Bissenbakker Frederiksen: Queer er en tilstand

Hilda Rømer Christensen: Et par pointer om skæve læsninger i historien og i Norden

ANMELDELSER                        
     
Alice Riis Bach: Kvinder på banen (Jan Toftegaard Nielsen og Anne Lykke Poulsen)

Bo Jacobsen, Mikkel Bo Madsen og Claude Vincent: Danske forskningsmiljøer. En undersøgelse af universitetsforskningen aktuelle situation (Steffen Jöhncke)

Bo Jacobsen: Hvad er god forskning? (Steffen Jöhncke)

Birgitte Søland: Becoming Modern. Young Women and the Reconstruction of Womanhood in the 1920s. (Bente Rosenbeck)

English abstracts           

Henning Bech
På tværs! En præsentation og kritisk diskussion af “queer-teori”
The article is a presentation and critical discussion of major tenets of queer theorizing. In particular, three aspects have proved fruitful: queer’s non-moralism in matters of sexual pleasures and bodily intensities; the wish of transcending existing categorizations; the creativity as to uncovering the “non-normal” dimensions of that which parades as “normal”. However, there are also a number of problems and weaknesses: the overestimation of the scope for applying the critical concepts of queer, i.e. heterosexism, heteronormativity, homophobia and normalness; the latent moralism of these critical concepts; the US-centrism; the overemphasis on discursive con-structionism and Lacanianism; and the lack of radical changes from older narratives of hierarchy and dichotomy, also in the outlining of alternatives that too often remain wed to the horizon of that which is negated.

Sasha Roseneil
Queer Frameworks and Queer Tendencies. Towards an understanding of Postmodern Transformations of Sexuality
This article aims to extend the theorization of postmodernity to consider social changes in the realm of sexuality. It offers a discussion of recent developments in queer theory, which, it is argued, can contribute significant new theoretical frameworks for the analysis of sexuality. It then traces some of the shifts in the organization of sexuality in the second half of the twentieth century, the emergence of modern sexual identities, and the changing relationships between ‘the homosexual’ and ‘the heterosexual’, as categories, identi-ties and ways of life. The article then outlines what are conceptualized as the ‘queer tendencies’ of postmodernity, which it is suggested characterize the contemporary re-organization of relations of sexuality. These queer tendencies are: queer auto-critique, the decentring of heterorelations, the emergence of hetero-reflexivity, and the cultural valorizing of the queer.

Dag Heede
Mærkværdiggørelsen af dansk litteratur: For en ny fordeling af litteraturhistorisk dumhed og blindhed
Taking queer critic Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick as a point of departure, this article discusses the need for a radical rewriting of the history of Danish literature. This queering of the Danish canon must consider the chronic crisis in modern homo-heterosexual definitions, and how every work, every writer and every lite-rary period negotiate it. A number of brief examples of literary queerings of canonical Danish literature are given with works by Hans Christian Andersen, Herman Bang, Johannes V. Jensen, Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), Klaus Rifbjerg and Kirsten Thorup.

Vibeke Pedersen
Det skæve talkshow og det skæve køn. Camp, drag og kvindelighed
In the post-modern celebrity talk show, where the host as well as the guests is constructed as synthetic personalities, the drag queen seems to be the ideal host. One of the pioneers of this development, which I propose to name the queer talk show, is the Australian drag queen Dame Edna. In this article, I discuss the potential of the genre in destabilizing genders, and look specifically at a Danish talk show with a female host, Helle Høgsbro, who appears as a drag queen. As camp traditionally has been associated with male gay culture, I consider the interests of feminism in camp aesthetics. I conclude that the playfulness and ambivalence of queer and camp aesthetics in challenging prevailing gender codes are useful for popular feminism, and that in general popular feminism and queer culture presently seem to be very close, as lesbians are beginning to explore femininity and post-feminists are challenging the dominant gender signifying system by playing with cross-dressing and homoeroticism. 

Bente Meyer
Ekstraordinære kroppe: køn, krop og invaliditet i nyere disability teori
This article aims to introduce the reader to the fields of disability studies, feminist disability studies and queer disability studies, and to discuss how these theoretical positions can open up new enquires in Nordic queer and gender studies. The article sets out by exploring how specifically the American tradition of disability studies can challenge body perspectives brought up by different gender theories in the humanities. The argument is that although Nordic gender studies in the past decade or two have been very much focused on issues of the body and bodily representation these academic perspectives have not been aware of the often radical questions of embodiment generated by academic disability theories. Consequently, if body issues in queer, women and gender studies in the Nordic countries are enriched with disability perspectives and disability theory, these studies will be transformed, specifically with regard to intersectional body issues. Finally the article discusses how the term “disability” can be translated into the Nordic languages.

Dorthe Staunæs
Skæve køn, skæve etniciteter
The Pakistani boy Wahid with his bleached hair and red trousers is an exception in the schoolyard. But the pupil’s ongoing points out, that his queerness might be central to both the pupil’s self-perception and in rela- tion to researching the intersections between gender and ethnicity and the relations be- tween normativity and otherness. The article is a journey into different situated gazes upon Wahid and his ways of doing gender and ethnicity and how these gazes relate to the multiplicity of subject positions in a Danish secondary school.