Week Nine Flashcards
Queer Camp
Queer Camp (as in something being “campy”) is associated with theatricality, playfulness and exaggeration, especially in melodrama and art. This can relate to aesthetics, performance, or individual & personal expression, and has long been connected toLGBTQI+ cultureand communities. It has also been deployed proactively as cultural critique, often as a form of satire, and/or a rejection of/disidentification with hegemonic social norms.
Disidentification
Disidentification is a queer analytic framework and mode of resistance. It posits the notion that some queer camp performances can performatively re-deploy stereotypes surrounding gender & sexuality in order to deconstruct/undo them–this involves stretching these (otherwise offensive) stereotypes to their limits, and in so doing divesting them of their power to hurt marginalized populations. It is a controversial theory, because it relies on featuring the stereotypes in the first place. Nevertheless, disidentification emphasizes the fact that identity formation, gender, and power relations are all socially constructed, and thus subject to critique/able to be changed
