How Queerness Goes Online

In this chapter, the author challenges the commonsense claim that the internet provides equally accessible resources that are free from stigma, prejudice, or discrimination. Through the stories of university students in their own words, this intersectional analysis explores how the internet certainly offers substantial benefits to queer and nonconforming youth; however, interpersonal bias and systems of oppression pervade online forms of communication and social media applications. Additionally, the author troubles the notion that the internet is experienced as a ‘safe space' for anonymous or uninhibited explorations of queer identity. In fact, despite the internet's practical affordances of identity work, there are severe limits to tolerance and inclusion in online sociality, and because of this, doing queer identity work online has the potential to exacerbate the isolating effects of homophobia and discrimination.

An Interview with Topher Campbell

This Curated Spaces features an interview with Topher Campbell of rukus! archive. The rukus! archive was founded in 2005 by photographer Ajamu X and filmmaker and theatre director Topher Campbell. The archive is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and making available artistic, social, and cultural histories related to Black LGBTQ+ communities in the United Kingdom. Its intellectual origins reside in the work of Stuart Hall and British cultural studies, and the critical dialogue it establishes with both mainstream heritage practices and dominant Black and queer identity discourses.

By Me Shall He Be Nursed! Queer Identity and Representation in The Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is a treasure-trove of the cultural memories of the Hindus. The grand Epic has entertained and edified our society through its numerous identity-relevant narratives since time immemorial. The longevity of The Mahabharata lies in its capacity to adapt, adopt and re-fashion the account, which grants endless opportunities of initiating open-ended debate. The grand Epic has shaped our values and shared a template by which a life guided by Dharma is to be lived. The dialogic text continues to contribute to the resolution of our emotional angst and existential dilemmas. Much ahead of its times, the Epic revels in the liminality that is apparent in the narratives of the gender-queer people who are an integral part of its culture-scape. This paper seeks to study two liminal figures in the Epic narrative – Shikhandi, the trans-gender Prince of Panchala, and Yuvanashwa, the pregnant King, who swayed between gendered identities and challenged the hegemonic heteronormative sexual framework, thereby opening avenues of conversation related to marginalization, resistance and empowerment. The paper also examines the queer cases of King Sudyumna and King Bhangashwan, who questioned the symbolic binaries of gender and delineated a horizon of possibilities. The aim here is to measure the resistance of the genderqueer against the prescriptive order of subjectivities and assess the impact and the outcome. Drawing from the deconstructivist and the queer theories, the study foregrounds the trauma and the resistance of the marginal. These narratives establish The Mahabharata as one of the earliest texts to have a meaningful discourse in the queer-space.

Queer Appetites: Embodied Desire in Monica Meneghetti’s What the Mouth Wants

Drawing upon José Esteban Mufioz’s notion of queer futurity, this article examines the links between memory, food, and sexuality in Monica Meneghetti’s What the Mouth Wants: A Memoir of Food, Love and Belonging. The memoir depicts how embodiment and affect are imprinted in memory and recirculated through narratives of familial loss and queer awakenings. It is through physical and emotional nourishment in every sense of the word that the protagonist remembers a past that is both troubling and seductive, and looks toward a future that is both queer and utopic. I suggest that the author’s queer identity as a bisexual and polyamorous woman is expressed through the sensations of the flesh and through the affects that shape the world around her, and shaped by one eye toward an untenable queer past and one toward a queer utopic future.

“Look at Me! I Can Change Your Tire”

Outside of bodybuilding, queer women in fitness and exercise cultures have received little attention in popular discourse and academic research. In this article, I examine how queer use of gym space can inform and reify a queer identity, specifically the enactment of queer female masculinity. I use Jack Halberstam’s work on female masculinity and literature in the fields of cultural studies and sport studies to discuss how queer identity, space, and power operate on the body in the context of fitness culture.

Representations of queer identity in David Lynch's film Mulholland Drive

The purpose of the article. This essay considers the queer identity as a modern tragic figure through a reading of David Lynch's 2001 film Mulholland Drive. Methodology. The article uses a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach using the methodological tools of cultural studies and queer theory based on structural-functional, semiotic-hermeneutic analysis, as well as Lacan's psychoanalytic concept of the subject. The scientific novelty. Within the framework of the humanities, in particular cultural studies, the analysis of the film by David Lynch "Mulholland Drive" in the context of queer theory is carried out for the first time. Conclusions. Since cinematography is a synthesis of various types of art, it embodies cultural phenomena and reproduces realities of life. Analysis of the peculiarities of the representation of queer identity in David Lynch's film Mulholland Drive through the prism of queer theory, in which identity is nothing more than a phenomenon that forms under the pressure of the dominant discourse and social order gives it the status of a cultural illusion or myth, demonstrates existing ideals. Cinema in the context of queer theory is self-reflective, autocratic, not indifferent. It can create a safe space - and at the same time be a protest action. The means by which the representation of a queer identity takes the place can be traced at all symbolic levels (material, index, iconic). At the material level, the grand plan is used as a sign in which all the characters in the film are related, without separating homosexual women visually. At the level of index status, the creation of the image of a homosexual couple is due to their profession. The heroines belong to the creative environment, in their relationship the dominant role is played by Diane. At the iconic level, images are constructed through their relationship with society. The heroines experience internal contradictions between their psychological state, natural nature, and social norms. The sexuality that is represented in the film contains a confrontation between the individual and the social. There is a tendency to normalize the image of queer identity in cinema, due to changes in the public consciousness. Based on the analysis, it was found that the film David Lynch reflects homosexuality as such, and not in the canonical models of traditional relationships.

‘Access necessitates being seen’: Queer visibility and intersectional embodiment within the health information practices of queer community leaders

Navigating healthcare infrastructures is particularly challenging for queer-identifying individuals, with significant barriers emerging around stigma and practitioner ignorance. Further intersecting, historically marginalised identities such as one’s race, age or ability exacerbate such engagement with healthcare, particularly the access to and use of reliable and appropriate health information. We explore the salience of one’s queer identity relative to other embodied identities when navigating health information and care for themselves and their communities. Thirty semi-structured interviews with queer community leaders from South Carolina inform our discussion of the role one’s queer visibility plays relational to the visibility of other identities. We find that leaders and their communities navigate these intersectional visibilities through unique and iterative approaches to health information seeking, sharing and use predicated upon anti-queer, racist, ableist and misogynistic sentiments. Findings can inform queer-inclusive, intersectionally informed interventions by health and information professionals such as non-profit advocacy organisations and medical librarians.