Ideology workshops - Wednesday 12 April 2006

How queer are queer politics

"Queer" is more than a synonym for LGBT. It claims to be a radical concept which wants to overcome identities, dualisms, hierarchies and to question (hetero)normativitiy. Critical voices state that "queer" disguises power relations or social constraints which result out of felt or given identities like being a black woman, even if that are social constructions. In this workshop I want to discuss the idea of queer politics critically but also think about the chances in queering certainties like heteronormativity. Questions in our discussion could be:
- Is it possible to have a political movement without identity or do
you need identity for empathy?
-    Are identities necessarily exclusive? Is queer not excluding?
-    What happens when queer is getting pop culture and/or lobbing?