In this journal, I will be discussing Margaret F. Gibson’s article “Queer Mothering.” The article reflects on queer mothers in reference to women who have queer sexual identities and/or are in relationships with other women, and who parent children. In this journal, I will be looking at the question of normalcy and “homonormativity” in terms of the depoliticization, commercialization, and co-optation of queerness and LGBTQ activism, using the pride parade as an example.
Gibson notes that queerness challenges presumed gender, familial, and sexual relations and norms in dominant culture (347). An overwhelming amount of research on LGBTQ parents focused on analyzing their effects on children in terms of their developmental outcomes (Gibson 350). …show more content…
Obviously, it is important to provide space and community for marginalized groups, but it must not be at the cost of de-politicization and the acceptance of corporate and state co-optation of the movement. Pride began as a defense of queer spaces where people could live freely outside constraints of “normalcy” as defined by ableist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, capitalist, imperialist structures. Acceptin the intrusion of state and corporate institutions into these spaces reproduces oppressive norms within our communities. Corporations and institutions such as the police see in the pride parade an opportunity to capitalize and make profit, and to improve their public relations image. When I attended last year’s pride, the parade felt more like a live-action commercial break than a march for LGBTQ rights. Some of my friends in the LGBTQ community have communicated to me that they felt “out of place” at pride, especially those who did not exactly fit the “norms” of the mainstream LGBTQ rights movement, such as those who are racialized, two-spirit or transgender or who are politically
Gibson notes that queerness challenges presumed gender, familial, and sexual relations and norms in dominant culture (347). An overwhelming amount of research on LGBTQ parents focused on analyzing their effects on children in terms of their developmental outcomes (Gibson 350). …show more content…
Obviously, it is important to provide space and community for marginalized groups, but it must not be at the cost of de-politicization and the acceptance of corporate and state co-optation of the movement. Pride began as a defense of queer spaces where people could live freely outside constraints of “normalcy” as defined by ableist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, capitalist, imperialist structures. Acceptin the intrusion of state and corporate institutions into these spaces reproduces oppressive norms within our communities. Corporations and institutions such as the police see in the pride parade an opportunity to capitalize and make profit, and to improve their public relations image. When I attended last year’s pride, the parade felt more like a live-action commercial break than a march for LGBTQ rights. Some of my friends in the LGBTQ community have communicated to me that they felt “out of place” at pride, especially those who did not exactly fit the “norms” of the mainstream LGBTQ rights movement, such as those who are racialized, two-spirit or transgender or who are politically