Exploring Queer Identities in Native American and African-American Communities
Delve into the nuanced intersections of race, ethnicity, and queerness within Native American and African-American communities. From the reclaiming of Two-Spirit identities to the presence of queer writers in literary spaces, this exploration sheds light on the complexities of identity, resistance to societal norms, and the ongoing challenges of homophobia within cultural contexts.
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Chapter 6: QUEERING INTERSECTIONALITY: Race and Ethnicity Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Queer Native Americans: Two-Spirit People berdache: French term male (often boy) who has sex with other men Not typically viewed as transgressive or sinful Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press
Two-Spirit People Qwo-Li Driskell, Queer Indigenous Studies (2011) Spiritual dimensions of identity and sexuality Without losing the function of the erotic Understanding of gender and sexuality that spans polarities Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Jose Estaban Munoz: Disidentification People in minority groups engage in a practice in which: They neither ignore nor fully reject majoritarian practices of images But work and play resistently within them Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Homophobia within Native American Societies Often a product of moving to urban spaces Sometimes within tribal practices and laws 2004: McKinley and Reynolds, two Native American women initially given marriage license, then rescinded 27 (or more) Native tribes do allow legal same-sex marriage Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Spotlight on the Arts: Queer Native American Writers Paula Gunn Allen, mixed-race, Pueblo-identified poet Max Wolf Valerio: transsexual writer (memoir, The Testoserone Files, 2006) Louise Erdrich, heterosexually-identified, includes queer or two-spirit characters in her fiction Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Queer African-Americans Charles I. Nero: historical work remains to be done, no reason to assume there were no same-sex relationships among African- Americans pre-20thcentury Vincent Woodard, The Delectable Negro (2014) White slave owners had nonconsensual sex with enslaved black men and women Written texts speak of black bodies in terms of consumption and (real or metaphorical) cannabalism Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Black Queerness and the History of Scapegoating Queer black men often viewed as having sold out their masculinity Overrepresentation of black men in the prison system Made invisible: example of Bayard Rustin Central to Civil Rights Movement Adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr. Sidelined because of open gay sexuality Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Racial Formations and Queer Black Male Experience Nero: Development of gay ghettoes (often today called gayborhoods ) as white-only, black-exclusionary spaces Zachary Blair: field work in Chicago s Boystown : Observed harassment of nonwhite queers by gay white men Use of stigmatizing and offensive language White gay men ordered nonwhite queers to leave the neighborhood Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Other forms of discrimination against queer black men Racial/ethnic sorting on social media and hook-up sites (such as Manhunt, Grindr, and Adam4Adam) Fetishization of black male bodies in pornography and erotic encounters: Stereotypes of brutality, violence, outsized black penis as stereotype Hypersexuality Typically depicted as top (or, when submissive, echoes of slavery) Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Black Lesbian Experience 1960s: Had to fight for inclusion in second-wave feminism Betty Friedan: lavender menace (exclusion of all lesbians) Jewelle Gomez: when approaching Audre Lorde about appearing in documentary, both realized Lorde would be only woman of color represented Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Spotlight: Audre Lorde, Poet, Activist, Black Lesbian Feminist Born in NYC to West Indian parents Began writing poetry as teenager Health activist: The Cancer Journals (first edition, 1980) Blurred genre boundaries: Zami: A New Spelling of My Name Called it a biomythography Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Statement: All Black women are lesbians While Black sisters don t like to hear this, I would have to say that all Black women are lesbians because we were raised in the remnants of a basically matriarchal society no matter how oppressed we may have been by patriarchy. We re all dykes, including our mommas (1980) Connected to Adrienne Rich s concept of the lesbian continuum. Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
The Down Low as Racist and Homophobic Myth Emerged during the first wave of the HIV/AIDS epidemic Stereotype of the closeted, usually bisexual black male Reinforced negative images of black men: lacked responsibility, was deceitful, hypersexual dangerous J.L. King, On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of Straight Black men Who Sleep with Men (2004) Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Keith Boykin: Rebuttal to the Down Low Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies, and Denial in Black America (2004) Down Low simply refers to infidelity, not unique to black experience or culture Homophobia is the source of lack of honest communication that is at the root of secrecy and lies about sexuality and HIV status Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Spotlight on Culture: Queer Black People in Family, Church, and Entertainment E. Patrick Johnson, queer black scholar: quare studies (phrase derived from grandmother s pronunciation), oral historian, Sweet Tea (2008) and Black. Queer. Southern. Women (2018) Christopher House, straight-identified scholar and clergyman: ethnography of Black church response to HIV/AIDS in U.S., African countries, and Caribbean Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Queer Black Figures in Entertainment: Three Examples RuPaul (born RuPaul Andre Charles), RuPaul s Drag Race: gay man as drag artist Janet Mock, Redefining Realness: My Path to Identity, Womanhood, Love, & So Much More (2014) Trans woman journalist Laverne Cox, Orange is the New Black Trans woman, actor, nominated for Emmy in Actress category Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Queer Latinidad Felix Padilla, latinidad: experience, histories, and practices by people of Latin American descent (not restricted to a specific nationality) Brownness : Latinx people often inhabit space between whiteness, Native American, and black Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Gloria Anzaldua: Mestizaje Tejana, born near border of Texas and Mexico Borderlands/la frontera (1sted, 1999) Mestiza: people of mixed indigenous and European descent Linguistic blurring/layering of borders frontier (frontera) Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Anzaldua, continued: Eight languages of Chicana/o experience Deconstructing the binaries of Spanish/English division Categories: 1. Standard English 2. Working class and slang English 3. Standard Spanish 4. Standard Mexican Spanish 5. North Mexican Spanish dialect 6. Chicano Spanish 7. Tex-Mex 8. Pachuco Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Spotlight on Cherrie Moraga Xicana (originally Chicana) poet and activist Combined creative and political/cultural writing: Loving in the War Years: lo que nunca paso por sus labios (1983) Mixed-race heritage; often refers to younger self by her birth-name, Cecilia Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Moraga, continued Argued for the power of butch-femme roles in Xicana culture Controversy: Still Loving in the (Still) War Years/2009: On Keeping Queer Queer 1. critique of the move towards legalization of queer marriage 2. perceives and critiques move to erase nonconforming gender styles among those who might otherwise identify as LGB 3. in turn, critiqued by trans* community for the second position Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Queer Latinx Experiences Many report being politicized over issues of immigration and employment This often led to recognition and integration of queer emotions and identity as part of intersectional queer/latinx identity Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Resisting Machismo Patriarchy: system that privileges the male and masculine over the female and feminine Machismo: valorization of heightened, single-minded masculinity Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Machismo and the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Rafael M. Diaz Role of machismo in the HIV/AIDS epidemic Unprotected anal sex as machismo (for top); desire to spread seed (semen) to bottom as maintenance of masculinity Machismo: Positive possibilities Taking responsibility for safer sex Protecting health and well-being of partner Diaz proposed a psycho-cultural model of sexual self-regulation Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press
Spotlight: Richard Blanco Gay Cuban-American Poet Openly gay poet Read at Barack Obama s Second Inauguration Writes about queer/latinx intersections: Queer Theory According to My Grandmother Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Queer Latinx Styles/Spaces Shane Moreman: Joteria Associated with gay Latinx men Literally translation: faggotry Self-consciously and productively campy and femme Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Hiram Perez: The Academy as Fetishizing Space Scholar and author, A Taste for Brown Bodies: Gay Modernity and Cosmopolitan Desire (2015) Experience at University of Michigan Conference on Gay Shame : Ellis Hanson, queer scholar, presentation using images of Latino gay porn worker, Kiko, dressed as schoolboy General discussion by other scholars of Kiko s penis size and ability Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
The Pulse Nightclub Attack: Bernadette Marie Calafell Primarily Latinx/Blatino (or Blacktino) clientele, located in Orlando, FL Omar Mateen, the killer, child of Afghan parents, but raised in the United States (Calafell identifies him as another form of brownness ) Mateen reported to have been incensed by sight of two men kissing He may have engaged in same-sex activities (never verified for certain) Calafell: multiple levels of race/ethnicity in the event, especially Latinx and Middle Eastern Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Queer Asian-Americans: Silences and Model Minority Members Multiple nationalities and ethnicities C. Winter Han: gay Asian-American men as being outside of both gay America and Asian America Feminization of both male and female Asians/Asian- Americans Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Orientalism and Asian-Americans David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly (play based on historical events) Song Liling, Communish spy, passed as female Being an Oriental, I could never be completely a man (title of a chapter of Han s book) Immigration and homosocial domesticity: bachelor societies : unmarried or unaccompanied Chinese men in 19thcentury United States lived with each other, often in communal settings men performed stereotypical women s work (cooking, laundry, sewing) reinforcement of western stereotype of Asian men as feminized Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Richard Fung: Asian(-American) Men in Gay Male Pornography Fung: Asian-Canadian scholar and artist Steam Clean (1990): public service video made on safer sex; features Asian men as well as those of other ethnicities and nationalities; text, Fuck safely. Use a condom displayed at end in English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Tamil Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Fung, continued Essay, Looking for My Penis: The Eroticized Asian in Gay Video Porn (1991) production, distribution, and accessibility of gay male porn (especially video) renders gay Asian men as not simply undersexed but lacking any sexuality gay porn restricted Asian performers to bottom role gay Asian viewer is not constructed as sexual subject Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Queer Asian American Men: Categories of Desire Terms are often stigmatizing and reductive Rice queen : white men primarily attracted to Asian men Potato queen : Asian (including Asian-American) men primarily attracted to white men Sticky rice : Asian men only attracted to other Asian men (or men of Asian descent) Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Spotlight on Culture: Kim Chi Runner-up on RuPaul s Drag Race Was 28 years old, first-generation Korean American Han: Kim Chi used familiar, racist tropes (submissive, quiet) and turned them to her advantage fate, femme, and Asian is in fact attractive Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Queer Asian American Women: An Understudied Population Asian women typically depicted as one of two stereotypical figures: Lotus Blossom or Dragon Lady (Fung) JeeYeun Lee, Why Suzie Wong is Not a Lesbian: Asian and Asian- American Lesbian and Bisexual Women and Femme/Butch/Gender Identities the role of hyperfemininity in Asian lesbian/bisexual identity butch/femme dynamics: no space for Asian-American butches in United States queer cultures Femme Asian-American lesbians also in double-bind: subject to harassmentand unwanted sexual attention from men Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
The Model Minority and Myth Asian-Americans have traditionally been stereotyped as the model minority : engaged and responsible citizens a form of exceptionalism contributing to U.S. economy earning their way into a quasi-whiteness Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
Silence: At What Cost? For queer Asian-Americans, this often leads to silence within their families, their social worlds, their professional lives. Role of religion: for those whose families identify as Christian (often as a result of western missionary practices), invisibility becomes the only way to remain and be accepted Bruce Henderson, Queer Studies: Beyond Binaries, Harrington Park Press 2019
