Hoping not to prove you can have too much of a good thing, I’m continuing my queer ponderings this week, visual arts-style, with new Queer Matrices.
I spent way more time on these than I’d like to admit, but the results are quite a bit more polished than last week’s laughable mock-up. I guess I was the last to know: you can’t do diddly in Paint.
Some definitions first…
The X axis is Queer Content, which could include portrayals of same sex love and relationships, homoeroticism, gender bending, trans experiences, drag, or any representation of queer culture, politics and/or community.
No Queer Content is the absence of any of these.
The Y axis is Queer Sensibility. The way I define it is looking at the world with a queer lens, through which homoeroticism and same sex love are celebrated, transexuality is transcendent, queer oppression is illuminated and indicted, and heteronormativity is challenged, subverted, and asked to please leave the building.
Non Queer Sensibility is the opposite, meaning looking at the world with a non queer lens, through which heteronormativity is centralized, traditionalized and/or assumed, a gender binary is de rigueur, and opposite sex relationships are the default setting.
Now we’ll take a look at Queer Matrices through the decades…
