Queer Identity Theory

Gabriel Garcia Roman’s Queer Icons project creates tension between queer identity and religious narrative in a way that ultimately allows queer bodies to occupy a new, exalted position that they have previously been disciplined out of. This is done by engaging in a queer politics and renegotiating the positions queer bodies are allowed to occupy. According to Jagose (1996), “there is no agreement on the exact definition of queer” as “the interdependent spheres of activism and theory that constitute its necessary context have undergone various shifts” (p. 76). For the purposes of this analysis, queer theory will be defined as an area of rhetorical criticism and theorizing about sex and gender that aims to deconstruct identity labels and advocate
Individuals find their identities, or “subjectifications,” through a process of “disciplinary coercion” that “[establishes] the basis of identity and social intelligibility” (Green, 2010, p. 319). Disciplinarity is commonly utilized when studying where particular groups of people are allowed to exist and what acts individuals are allowed to engage in. In her article “Queer Critical Rhetoric Bites Back,” Rand (2013) poses the question: can queer rhetorical studies appear to the various gatekeepers of the field as making potentially radical theoretical interventions or must it always me contained as ‘merely’ queer criticism, caricatured by the most hackneyed lamentations of homophobic discourse that are as self-evident as they are easily ignored? (p. 534)
This question comments on the places queer theorists have been disciplined into occupying within the academy. According to Rand, queer rhetorical studies is often viewed as less valuable than other theoretical studies and is thus disciplined into a relegated position within
88). There are three elements of this construction: boundaries, consciousness, and negotiation (p. 88, 92). The creation of boundaries “highlight[s] differences between a marginalized group and the dominant culture” (p. 88). This is done in Roman’s work through the title; naming the work Queer Icons signifies that it presents queer individuals rather than heterosexual and cisgender individuals. Slagle (1995) describes consciousness as “the process by which groups come to understand themselves as a collective in opposition to an oppressive group” (p. 92). Roman is conscious of the fact that his “images give visibility to a population that’s generally under-represented in the art world” (WEBSITE) Negotiation refers to “the symbols and everyday actions subordinate groups use to resist and restructure existing systems of domination” (p. 92). This is the work that Roman’s Queer Icons is engaged in. By placing queer bodies into holy, venerated positions, he is restructuring the religious institutions that regularly oppress and marginalize queer