Queer Theory, Gender, and Disability Studies Lecture Terms

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering foundational theories, authors, texts, and terms across queer studies, Indigenous kinship, Black feminist thought, and disability theory.

Trikone

A newsletter examined by Nayan Shah to explore the complexities of South Asian queer representation; while aimed at sharing South Asian queer stories, it was critiqued for relying on a white, Western framework of sexuality that could not adequately represent historically silenced identities.

Butch

A category of lesbian identity addressed by Hammonds in 'Black (W)holes and the Geometry of Black Female Sexuality,' critiqued for being defined with whiteness as the normative state of existence, which renders it exclusionary.

Honey, Phoenix Radio DJ

A primary character in Lizzie Borden's film 'Born in Flames' who uses a pirate radio show to broadcast feminist ideas and later joins the Women’s Army’s resistance against the patriarchal government after her station is shut down.

Compulsory Settler Sexuality

A concept used by Tallbear to describe societal expectations surrounding sex, marriage, and reproduction, specifically how the ideal of the middle-class, reproductive heterosexual nuclear family enforces colonial structures to control Indigenous populations.

Jouissance

A concept discussed in Munoz’s 'Cruising Utopia' describing an intense feeling of pleasure that leads to a loss of self, typically associated with the sexual experiences and abandonment of gay men.

Trans Studies as an “Evil Twin”

A theoretical position introduced in Stryker's 'Transgender Studies: Queer Theory's Evil Twin,' arguing that trans studies acts as queer theory's evil twin because it disrupts queer theory's foundational sexual identity labels while prioritizing the gender categories queer theory seeks to avoid.

Repressive Hypothesis

A concept referenced by Foucault to analyze the relationship between power and sex, arguing that power actively shapes how sexuality is understood and categorized rather than merely suppressing discourse or queerness.

Reproductive Futurism

A concept articulated by Lee Edelman referring to a societal obsession with reproduction and the future that prioritizes childbearing over people's current situations, operating on the belief that having children is the only way to preserve society.

Queer Futurity

A concept formulated by Muñoz in 'Cruising Utopia' proposing a map or horizon toward a queer utopia that, while impossible to reach physically, serves as an ideal that people can envision and strive toward.

Tiospaye

The Indigenous term for extended family cited by Tallbear in 'Making Love and Relations Beyond Settler Sex and Family,' describing how Indigenous communities rely on extended and tribal networks to raise families, challenging the Western nuclear-family ideal.

Medical Model vs. Social Model of Disability

Two contrasting models highlighted by Eli Clare: the medical model frames disability as an individual defect, condition, or curable disease; the social model posits that individuals are disabled by societal barriers, attitudes, and environmental conditions rather than by their own bodies or minds.

Politics of Silence

A concept explored by Hammonds describing how the historical discrimination and hypersexualization of enslaved Black women caused their descendants to adopt silence around sexuality as a survival strategy, which ultimately resulted in cultural desexualization.

Concrete vs. Abstract Utopias

Bloch's conceptual distinction cited by Munoz: concrete utopias are rooted in historical struggles and collective, educated hope with actionable potential, whereas abstract utopias are forms of optimism detached from historical reality that offer no achievable path forward.

‘Supercrip’

A term theorized by Eli Clare to describe the cultural trope of treating disabled individuals as heroic simply for living ordinary lives, which reinforces ableism by implying disabled people are only valuable if they accomplish extraordinary feats.

“Mannish Lesbian”

A term analyzed by Esther Newton to describe the historical representation of masculine lesbians prior to the adoption of 'butch'; it served both as a stigmatizing label for women defying traditional femininity and as a recognizable symbol used to claim lesbian identity.

Compulsory Able-Bodiedness

A concept introduced by McRuer asserting that able-bodiedness, like heterosexuality, is treated by society as compulsory and natural, particularly within a capitalist framework that stigmatizes disability as abnormal.