2022 Issue 5 Sept/Oct Focus - Mid-South magazine

By creating a replication of nonnormative genders
through visual media, a set of rules are created on
how a member of society should exist; however, queerness
is an abstract and fluid identity that transcends the conventions
of linguistic barriers. There is no room for permanence in
queerness, and by crafting stereotypes of our community,
cis-centric society writes a rulebook for a game that
is designed to have no rules.
adapted to the prescribed
identities that are deemed
acceptable to dominant
society. In doing so, we
cast shadows on the parts
of the community that do
not comfortably sit within
the prescribed framework
of gender and sexual
identities. “The shunning
of ‘unintelligible’ gender
embodiments and queer
desire by mainstream
media and culture creates
the shame and shudder
of… rejection.” 5 In other
words, bodies that are
“unintelligible” or exist
outside of our linguistic
capabilities are cast out
for not conforming to the
stereotypes. So, how do we
change the conversation of
queer representation in a
way that expands the cisnormative
understanding
of queerness to
encapsulate rejected
positions? Through
monsters, of course.
In order to imagine
“distinctly queer and
alternative futures,” we
need a device that twists
identity. 6 Removing
preconceived associations
of queer expression by
distorting the human form
creates further possibilities
to express abstract
and expansive ideas. In
providing an alternative
visual representation to
communicate queerness,
the idea is much more
approachable to the nonqueer
eye. It retracts the
linguistic conventions that
allow political hierarchies.
We are no longer bull
dykes, trannies, queers,
hermaphrodites, tomboys,
sissies, gays, lesbians, and
fags. We are monsters:
unknown and intriguing.
We are something
otherworldly and strange,
worth investigating,
cautiously, for beasts lie in
the shadows. Transgender
theorist Susan Stryker
beautifully outlines the
power of monstrosity:
“Monsters, like angels,
function as messengers
and heralds of the
extraordinary. They serve
to announce impending
revelation, saying, in effect,
‘Pay attention: something
of profound importance is
happening.” 7
By transforming queer
identity from the human
to the non-human, people
are able to set aside
notions of prescribed fear
for a different element
of fear–fear of the
unknown. The unknown
is unexplainable, and so
is queerness. “To detour
around the obstruction
of unbearable reality,” is
to forge a new path of
representation, one that
relies on the ambiguous
tactics ingrained in queer
theory. 8 Through altering
our reality, we provide
spaces for new one–ones
that are fantastic, fabulous,
crude and unapologetic.
There becomes room
for the queers, freaks,
monsters, dragons,
ghouls, fairies, furries,
cenobites, werewolves,
demons, vampires, the
undead, witches, warlocks,
angels, aliens, sentient
orbs, celestial beings, and
creatures of the night.
REFERENCES:
1. Jones, Stacy Holman, and Anne
Harris. (2016).
2. Jones, Stacy Holman, and Anne
Harris. (2016).
3. Butler, J. (2014).
4. Butler, J. 1993. Bodies That Matter: On
the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. New York:
Routledge.
5. Jones, Stacy Holman, and Anne
Harris. “Monsters, Desire and the
Creative Queer Body.” Continuum 30,
no. 5 (2016): 518–30. https://doi.org/10.
1080/10304312.2016.1210748.
6. Halberstam, J. 2011. The Queer Art of
Failure. Durham, NC: Duke University
Press.
7. Stryker, S. 2006. “My Words to Victor
Frankenstein above the Village of
Chamounix: Performing Transgender
Rage.” In The Transgender Studies
Reader, edited by S. Stryker and S.
Whittle, 244–251. New York: Routledge.
8. Solnit, R. 2014. The Faraway Nearby.
New York: Penguin.
focuslgbt.com | Nerds! 13