Queer Theory: We're here, we're queer

Becoming popular with the gay rights movement, queer theory has been around for quite some time. Just as the title suggests, this theory focuses on the topics of homosexuality versus heterosexuality in literature. This theory looks at the natural desires and wants of people and characters.

Very similar to this theory, but slightly different, are gay and lesbian studies. While gay and lesbian studies focus largely on the homosexual conclusions of certain texts, queer theory looks deeper to find the exact patterns and implications that may lead to a character coming across as homosexual.

This brings into question, however, what the term homosexual really means. There are three stages of same sex interaction that can be taken into consideration when deciding if a text is truly leading towards homosexuality or not.

Homosocial: This term refers to situations that place same sex people together. Really, this can be any situation. Perhaps two females are chatting in line at a grocery store or two males are discussing a job position over coffee. No matter what the circumstances, if two people of the same sex are having an interaction, it is homosocial.

Homoerotic: This terms refers to situations where people of the same sex are placed into situations that are erotically charged. This does not have to imply that homosexual preferences are being shown by either party, just that the situation may be more intimate than a homosocial one. An example of this would be a group of boys in a locker room, joking and shoving around after a game while changing out of their uniforms. Another example may be two girls at a sleep over together, whispering back and forth from the same bed before going to sleep. Each of these situations, while not explicitly homosexual, can be seen as homoerotic.

Homosexual: This term refers to a situation where two people of the same sex are romantically involved or possess a sexual desire for one another. Much more straight forward than the last two, homosexual situations are explicit while the other two may need to be inferred. 

Queer Theory deals with other topics in literature such as the role of gender in homosexuality. Being a socially constructed concept, gender is often taken into consideration when looking at literature through queer theory.

Other things that are taken into consideration with queer theory are how characters go against social norms in literature. Queer theory also focuses on binaries that are broken throughout a piece of writing and how this can relate back to the binaries that are often being broken by acts of homosexuality.

Using this theory to examine different works of literature can reveal aspects that readers may not have thought to dissect before. Queer theory is a great example of how simply changing a theoretical lens can shift the view on an entire piece of work.

Citations:

"Free Image on Pixabay - Gay, Flag, Hand, Homosexual, Pride." Free Illustration: Gay, Flag, Hand, Homosexual, Pride. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2015. <https://pixabay.com/en/gay-flag-hand-homosexual-pride-637453/>.