P-204 Assignment

 P-204 Assignment

Queer theory

Name- Kishan Jadav

Paper- Contemporary Western Theories and Film Studies

Roll no-10

Enrollment no-3069206420200008

Email id- jadavkishan55555@gmail.com

Batch-2020-22 (MA Sem-III)

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 

Introduction :

Queer theory is often used to designate the combined area of gay and lesbian studies, together with the theoretical and critical writings about all modes of variance—such as cross-dressing, bisexuality, and transsexuality— from society’s normative model of sexual identity, orientation, and activities.Queer theory is often used to designate the combined area of gay and lesbian studies, together with the theoretical and critical writings about all modes of variance—such as cross-dressing, bisexuality, and transsexuality— from society’s normative model of sexual identity, orientation, and activities.So you can say the, Queer theory is a term that emerged in the late 1980s for a body of criticism on issues of gender, sexuality, and subjectivity that came out of gay and lesbian scholarship in such fields as literary criticism, politics, sociology, and history. Queer theory rejects essentialism in favor of social construction; it breaks down binary oppositions such as “gay” or “straight”; while it follows those postmodernists who declared the death of the self, it simultaneously attempts to rehabilitate a subjectivity that allows for sexual and political agency. Some of the most significant authors associated with queer theory include Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Judith Butler, Michael Warner, and Wayne Koestenbaum."

      - From the Encyclopedia of Postmodernism, in Credo Reference

 The term “queer” was originally derogatory, used to stigmatize male and female same-sex love as deviant and unnatural; since the early 1990s, however, it has been adopted by gays and lesbians themselves as a noninvidious term to identify a way of life and an area for scholarly inquiry. See Teresa de Lauretis, Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities, 1991; and Annamarie Jagose, Queer Theory: An Introduction, 1996. M. H. Abrams & Geoffrey Galt Harpham .

The basics of queer theory :

“Queer theory’s origins are in LGBT studies – which focus on sexuality and gender. It soon distanced itself from those approaches due to disagreements with the stable identities that LGBT studies suggest. Queer theory emphasizes the fluid and humanly performed nature of sexuality – or better, sexualities. It questions socially established norms and dualistic categories with a special focus on challenging sexual (heterosexual/homosexual), gender (male/female), class (rich/poor), racial (white/non-white) classifications. It goes beyond these so-called ‘binaries’ to contest general political (private/public) as well as international binary orders (democratic/ authoritarian). 

 -According to Markus Theil 

These are viewed as over-generalising theoretical constructs that produce an either/or mode of analysis that hides more than it clarifies and is unable to detect nuanced differences and contradictions. But queer theory also analyses and critiques societal and political norms in particular as they relate to the experience of sexuality and gender. These are not viewed as private affairs. Just as feminists perceive of gender as a socially constructed public and political affair, so queer theorists argue with regards to sexuality and gender expression.

Queer theory looks at:

• According to Pushpinder Kaur.
• The general construction of sexuality in discourses of medicine, law or religion. 
•  Popular representation of the gay or the lesbian.
•  The public understanding of alternate sexualities. 
•  The ‘hidden history’ of homosexual writing and representation. 
•  The institutional (religion, family, medicine, law) structures that undergird popular representations of homosexuality. 
• The link between sexuality-based oppression and other discriminatory forms such as patriarchy and racism. 
• The geography of sexuality, with specific reference to ghettoization of gays and homosexuals.

Queer theory perceives sexuality and gender as social constructs that shape the way sexual orientation and gender identity are displayed in public – and thereby often reduced to black-and-white issues that can be manipulated or distorted. With regard to more classical IR topics, it critically assesses the assumption that all societies find themselves at different points along a linear path of political and economic development or adhere to a universal set of norms. Hence it embraces ambiguity, failure and conflict as a counterpoint to a dominant progressive thinking evident in many foreign or development policies. As a scholarly undertaking, queer theory research constitutes of ‘any form of research positioned within conceptual frameworks that highlight the instability of taken-for-granted meanings and resulting power relations’ .

Connection between queer theory and cinema :

Cinema is a powerful medium to catalyze social change. Like other art forms cinema is both a part of social reality and also a medium of portraying it. Films have subtle influence on society’s way of thinking Cinema has undoubtedly contributed a lot to the queer movement in India. Sexual minority consists of all those people who fall under the categories of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders. 

Here some Examples :

1. Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga :

Rajkumar Rao and Sonam Kapoor play the lead in this one. As for the story, Rao falls in love with Kapoor who tells him about her sexual orientation and that she's in love with another girl. Rao, a struggling actor, then decides to help her unite with her love as she faces extreme opposition from her family and the society for her choice. The film is a light watch with multiple comic blasts and has an energising cast including Anil Kapoor. 

2. film Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan by Hitesh Kewalya.

This movie is about two gay person who love each other. After so long, finally Bollywood movies try to capture this kind of movie. The homosexual relationship between Aman and Kartik is very romantically portrayed with the kissing in the train to holding each other’s back no matter what. At times, people may try to assign the binaries of being feminine and masculine to any of the two. But again the stereotyping is kept at bay with both characters displaying both the traits in their action.

Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan: Milestone In Queer Cinema

In this movie we found one marriage scene and there at finally Tripathi family knows about their son’s homosexuality. Movie depicted the conflict well and how the family tries to stop them. 

 Homophobia :-

In this movie their is symbol of Kali Gobi which represent the term homophobia (dislike of or prejudice against gay people). 

ड्रीम गर्ल के बाद शुभ मंगल ज्यादा सावधान में लड़की नहीं लड़के संग इश्क करेंगे आयुष्मान खुराना, देखिए फिल्म का मजेदार टीजर 

 Kali Gobi is the homophobia that resides in people’s heart, and they think they are right in enforcing it on others. But in the end, it is a rotten vegetable, not safe to be eaten. It has to be burnt from our systems with acceptance. Nobody can control how and what others may feel, and it is no one’s business to control who should be loved by whom.

3. Sadak 

Third gender played a significant role in Hindi cinema. Films like ‘Tamanna’, ‘Shabnam Mausi’, ‘Daayra’, ‘Darmiyaan’,‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ attempted to take a serious take on third gender. For the first time in the history of Hindi cinema, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt casted actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar as ‘Maharani’, a eunuch who was the lead villain of the movie Sadak.The actor’s performance fetched him a Filmfare award but the role did little to improve the image of eunuchs in the society. The movie depicted her as an evil brothel owner who tortures and traffics young women. In a film where the trans character got so much screentime, there was a constant reiteration of the harmful myths associated with the trans community, ultimately creating a stereotype in Indian mainstream culture.

4. Dear Dad 

 The most recent example being Aravind Swami in the film Dear Dad, where he comes out as a homosexual in front of his son and how he explains his side of the story. For an actor who’s made a comeback to Bollywood after a decade, the choice to pick the role and essay it with sincerity, was a welcome surprise for audiences. Even if the film hasn’t succeeded on the whole, the fact that the actor, known for his ‘masculine charm’, not worrying about his image is itself a welcome gesture.

Conclusion :

The development of queer theory in IR suggests that more rigorous questions of the impact of LGBT issues in international politics have begun to be successfully answered. It highlights the valuable contribution to analysing IR through until now unrecognised perspectives on sexual and gender expression. Queer theory has also proven to be theoretically inclusive in ways that LGBT and feminist scholarship sometimes has not. A question that remains is whether queer theorists can recognise – and perhaps transcend – their own racial, class and Western-centric orientations. Such broadening would also make it easier to find common cause with other affected minorities – not least to move from a purely critical or deconstructive mode to a more transformative and productive one. Precisely because queer theory is able to transcend the focus on sexuality and gender through general analytical principles, it lends itself to interrogating a wide range of IR phenomena. In a time when IR is often accused of being parochial, queer theory is a necessary corrective to powerful myths and narratives of international orders.

Citation :

Bhattacharya, Ananya. "Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga Movie Review: Sonam Kapoor powers excellent lesbian love story." India Today 01 February 2019.

Chatterjee, Rituparna. "100 Years of Indian Cinema: Homosexuality in films." News 18 27 February 2013.

Das, Poulomi. "What Kapoor & Sons Teaches Bollywood About Coming Out of the Closet." Arre 18 March 2018.

Dhaliwal, Nirpal. "Dostana is a straight victory for gay comedy." The Guardian 3 December 2008.

J., Nupur. "Queer Voice Shines In “Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan”." Youth Ki Awaaz 3 May 2020.

Kaur, Pushpinder. "Gender, Sexuality and (Be) longing: The Representation of Queer (LGBT) in Hindi." Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (2017): 9.

Nadadhur, Srivathsan. "Films for an inclusive society." The Hindu 12 September 2016.

Thiel, Markus. "Introducing Queer Theory in International Relations." 7 January 2018.

Tickoo, Sakshi. "Bollywood films that portrayed the LGBTQIA+ community realistically." City Spider 03 June 2021.