Desirable queerness: a critical queer autoethnography of being and becoming
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Date
2016
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University of New Brunswick
Abstract
In this study, I use autoethnography and queer and critical theory to explore how compulsory heterosexual hegemony operates on a daily basis in our lives. The work of Butler, Foucault, Derrida and queer theorists, including Sedgwick and Warner, along with my personal narratives, are used to deconstruct current societal/educational discourses and practices that present queerness as “undesirable.” Thus, my personal narratives of “being and becoming” as a queer child/student/adult/teacher are used to speak to, and at times interrupt, queer theoretical positions, and practices, in order to present queerness as “desirable.” Writing autoethnographically involves studying how the self interacts with culture, and utilizing queer and critical theoretical perspectives becomes a lens through which to view the culture from whence the self originates. The implications from this exploration have the power to impact the reader, and the researcher, as new ways of thinking may result. This work may be particularly useful for educators as they reflect upon their own and current educational discourses and practices in regards to queer students.