My definition of queer theory: A feminist, academic area of study that is concerned with the cultural view of non-normative sexual orientations and non-binary genders. Queerness has been linked predominately with gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons but may include any sexual identity.
The thoughts and ideas that Queer Theory would be helpful to medical humanities students thinking about going into the healthcare system. LGTBQA persons face many challenges in finding culturally informed health services and getting the best care. In the past, healthcare did not understand queerness and it interfered with providing great medical practice; if the students in my medical humanities understand queer perspectives, they would be better clinicians for it.
Cathy Cohen writes about marriage and heterosexuality as viewed from white supremacists perspectives (Cohen, 454). She uses the example of historical marriage laws that prohibit the marriage between slaves, more specifically persons of color. Cohen writes about A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. piece, In The Matter of Color-Race and the American Legal Process: The Colonial Period, and writes, “he reminds us that the essential core of the American legal tradition was the preservation of the white race” (Cohen, 453). In colonial times, people of color were not allowed to participate in the sanctity of marriage because it threatened the white race. These views carried on throughout history and interracial marriages are still stigmatized today.
Cohen’s discussion of this relationship is relevant to her plea for “difficult work of coalition politics” because the prohibition of marriage for people of color can provide more information for integration of races (Cohen, 482). Cohen claims “if we pay attention to both historical and current examples of heterosexual relationships which have been prohibited, stigmatized, and generally repressed we may begin to identify those spaces of shared or similar oppression and resistance that provide a basis for radical coalition work” (482). Coalition politics is challenging work because it attempts to bring together many different marginalized populations to achieve one common goal and each unique group must understand their privileges.
References
Cathy Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?”
-CB