Queer Theory

Queer theory is the field of critical theory (it is the study and critique of society and culture), that came out in the early 1990s of heavily influenced by the work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Judith Butler, based on fields of LGBTI (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) studies and feminist studies. It’s a kind of analysis committed to queer (surprising or unexpected) readings of texts. Whereas gay/lesbian studies paying attention its inquiries into "natural" and "unnatural" activities with respect to homosexual behavior, queer theory expands its focus to include any kind of sexual activity or identity that falls into normative and abnormal categories. Queer is by definition whatever is at likelihood with the normal, the reasonable, the dominant. It is an identity without an essence.

Essentialist Theory

The Essentialist theory was introduced to queer theory criticism as a result of feminism, when the criticism was known by most as Lesbian/Gay criticism. The essentialist believed that genders have an essential nature as opposed to differing by a variety of accidental or conditional features brought about by social forces. Due to this kind of belief in the essential nature of a person, they assumed that a person sexual preference would be natural and essential to a person personality. In a constructivist perspective, it is not proper to take gay or lesbian as subject matter with objective reality, but rather they must be understood in terms of their social context, in how ancestors creates these terms through history.

Queer theorist Michel Warner effort to provide a definition of a concept that typically gets out of categorical definitions. Social reflection carried out in such a manner tends to be creative, fragmentary and suspicious and leaves us eternally at a disadvantage. The beginning realization that, themes of homophobia and heterosexism can be examined in almost any manuscript of our culture means that, we are only beginning to have an idea of how widespread those institutions and accounts are.

Mission

Queer theory main mission is exploring the challenge of the categorization of gender and sexuality. Identities are not fixed, they cannot be labeled and categorized, because identities consist of many varied components and that to categorize by one wrong characteristic. For example women can be women without being labeled a lesbian or feminist and she may have a different chase from the dominant culture. During the last decades the interest on Queer theory has increased outside US. In Brazil and France the interest has also created new lines of thought inside it. In Brazil, Queer theory has influenced the education field.

Questions:

• When queer theory established?
• What is the Queer theory main job or mission?