Queer Eye for the Straight Gal

I'm a philosopher, meaning that I studied philosophy, that I have a degree that says I passed university as a philosophy major, that I know my way around the thoughts of certain old gents with too much time on their hands. It doesn't mean in any way I can philosophize. That's something different and something you usually don't study at school. As far as philosophers go, there are two kinds: the historicists that study the works of other philosophers, and the thinkers that come up with new and splendid ideas of their own. Having studied philosophy people generally assume I'm also the second kind of philosopher, that I have this Grand System of Thought that guides me through life along a clear road, preferable made with yellow bricks. If there's one thing that a focus on philosophy while trying to grow up has taught me, it's this: yellow brick roads are usually overrun with plants and end up having that foul green shade bricks get when no-one cleans them. A Grand System will ultimately lead to a dead end in my life. But the question remains: what did shape my thinking and the way I look out on life? Digging in my memory I find one constant: a strain of thoughts, of connections that I later learned to call Queer Theory. From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, entry Homosexuality:

In contrast to gay or lesbian, ‘queer,’ it is argued, does not refer to an essence, whether of a sexual nature or not. Instead it is purely relational, standing as an undefined term that gets its meaning precisely by being that which is outside of the norm, however that norm itself may be defined. As one of the most articulate queer theorists puts it: “Queer is … whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant. There is nothing in particular to which it necessarily refers. It is an identity without an essence” (Halperin, 1995, 62, original emphasis).

When a teenager, a twentysomething, making her way in life, you refer to other thinkers to shape your own identity. I have always identified myself with the outcasts and the queer, maybe even moreso than with the geeks and the nerds, although my classmates would have preferred to put me in those categories. From my early teenage years on up I've been intrigued by the queer lifestyle, as a lifestyle that stands outside normality, but also as a lifestyle that celebrates sexuality. The gay identity places itself outside normality, because of its sexuality. The sexuality isn't something that comes along, it's the reason why. It is there to show that oranges are not the only fruit, and that my taste for slash fanfiction is something that isn't new in the least.

"The Queerest of the Queer"

salon_virtuel has gone live with its first entry on Michel Foucault and identity formation. Yes, I'm very ambitous when it comes to writing these essays. Please hop over there if you want to add something or just want to read what philosophy is good for in humanity. If it's, in your opinion, good for nothing, then don't feel ashamed: tomorrow it's time to play the music.

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