Queer Theory/Queer Lives, Fall 2003
This exam is worth 20% of your grade. You will take the exam on Tuesday, October 14 in class. You will have the whole class period to write the exam. You are allowed to bring with you one 3x5 or 5x7 card with notes for yourself. You do not need a blue book. If you have any questions, please ask via email or in class. Have a good week.
1. How is “queer” different from “lesbian and gay?” Your answer can draw on course readings and/or personal experience.
2. How do the articles “Theory in the Flesh” and “Haciendo teorías” challenge dominant notions of what constitutes theory?
3. What criticisms do Lorde and Anzaldúa make of the ways women, feminists and/or queer people have dealt with difference? What do these writers want us to do in order to deal with difference more effectively?
4. Both Clare and Anzaldúa talk about home and homophobia. How and why are these ideas connected?
5. According to Foucault, what are two of the major institutions/processes that played roles in discourses about sex, and what roles did they play?
6. According to Sedgwick, how can ignorance be used to enforce power? Please give one example of people in power making use of ignorance in this way.
7. What are the main elements of the concept of “doing gender” (as opposed to the concepts of “sex roles” or “gender roles,” for example)?
8. According to Butler, what does drag, as exemplified in Paris is Burning, tell us about the construction of gender and sexuality?
9. What is “The Bathroom Problem” and where does it come from (what is its source)? How do female masculinity and male femininity influence this problem and/or its resolution?
10. According to Gamson, what is the “queer dilemma” of identity politics? (Or, how are identity politics useful and how are they limiting for queer people/movements?)
11. What does Wittig mean when she says lesbians are not women?
Essays – 1 page each
1. How do intersex and the intersex movement influence social norms about sex and gender? In your essay make at least two references to the articles and/or film on the topic.
2. What is similar about experiences of disability and experiences of queerness? What is different about them? Please make at least two references to articles on this topic.