Queer Ethnography

Quote from the review:
"As well as giving complex accounts of embodied subjectivity through emphasis on intersectional analysis, the second Reader makes evident how transgender studies has moved beyond poststructuralist perspectives on gendered embodiment, which is a shift that is in line with emerging themes and conceptual developments in feminist, queer and gender studies more generally. However, as the articles do not follow a specific theoretical shift, this move is not made normative. Instead the anthology as a whole oscillates between different perspectives and concepts. It should, moreover, be mentioned that the articles overall are written by authors who do remarkable, thorough and sound theoretical and empirical work. While most of the texts are new, there are also some classical texts that have been published previously. On the  whole, Transgender Studies Reader 2 demonstrates the maturation and expansion of the field, at the same time as it shows the importance of previous work."

Pregnancy is considered a feminine experience in mainstream Canadian culture. Babies identified as female at birth are expected to grow up to become feminine heterosexual mothers. This research considers the desires, choices, and experiences of individuals who were identified as female at birth, but who do not identify as feminine heterosexual women; this dissertation focuses on the reproductive desires, choices, and experiences of butch lesbians, transmen, and genderqueer individuals in British Columbia. Three methods and two distinct populations formed this research. Participant observation was conducted in 21 cities across southern BC. Questionnaires were completed by 28 health care professionals (HCPs), and by 46 butch lesbian, transmen, and genderqueer (BTQ) individuals. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 10 HCPs, 8 BTQ individuals who had experienced at least one successful pregnancy, and 4 BTQ individuals who had either experienced or been diagnosed with a condition linked to infertility. What I found, is that for many BTQ individuals, reproduction associated with the female body (ie: pregnancy and breastfeeding) is not exclusively considered a feminine desire or experience. In fact, what I discovered is that BTQ individuals who experience pregnancy and breastfeeding explicitly challenge the cultural fetish associating femininity with reproduction (including pregnancy, breastfeeding, mothering, and fertility). Thus, I highlight not only the typically ignored desire and achievement of pregnancy of BTQ individuals, but also how BTQ individuals have experienced breastfeeding, how some BTQ parents raise queerlings, and how some BTQ individuals have negotiated diagnoses and experiences of infertility. Overall, I highlight the unique and various expectations and experiences that butch lesbians, transmen, and genderqueer individuals have regarding their ‘female’ (and potential) biological reproduction. In the end, I hope that by presenting the diverse reproductive experiences, desires, and choices of BTQ individuals, that I can foster more of an understanding of these experiences, desires, choices, and individuals, and thus challenge the cultural fetish that links femininity with ‘female’-associated reproduction. Moreover, I offer recommendations for health care professionals in an effort to foster more understanding in BTQ health care, as well as help to facilitate more queer competent health care professionals.

This article offers a way to think about queer life in Asia beyond a focus on the West, by considering flows and influences within Asia. One of the early formulations of proposing queer regionality, and a queer geographic approach that emphasizes critical Area Studies as a way to provincialize Euro-American centrism. ||
บทความนี้นําเสนอวิธีคิดเกี่ยวกับชีวิตเพศทางเลือกในเอเชียนอกเหนือจากการมุ่งเน้นไปที่ตะวันตกโดยพิจารณากระแสและอิทธิพลภายในเอเชีย || 
本文通过考虑亚洲内部的流动和影响，提供了一种思考亚洲酷儿生活的方法，而不是关注西方。||
이 글은 서구에 초점을 맞추는 것을 넘어 아시아의 퀴어 생활에 대해 생각할 수 있는 방법을 제시하며, 아시아 내의 흐름과 영향을 고려한다.  ||
Artikel ini menawarkan cara untuk berfikir tentang kehidupan aneh di Asia di luar tumpuan kepada Barat, dengan mempertimbangkan aliran dan pengaruh di Asia. ||
یہ مضمون ایشیا کے اندر بہاؤ اور اثرات پر غور کرتے ہوئے مغرب پر توجہ مرکوز کرنے سے ہٹ کر ایشیا میں ہم جنس پرست زندگی کے بارے میں سوچنے کا ایک طریقہ پیش کرتا ہے۔

What is queer in contemporary transnational queer studies? In this essay, I explore queer as a political-intellectual orientation and aspirational field animated by its constitutive polarity: between a more constrained queer focused on sex, sexuality, and gender and a more expansive queer that bears an oblique relationship to these more proper objects. I trace how the desire to do justice to our objects of study produces queer's characteristic inversions, so that when we seek to move "beyond" queer's proper objects, we find ourselves drawn back into them and inversely, when we seek to center proper subjects of queer, we find ourselves elsewhere and otherwise. I illuminate this queer movement through a conceptual review of recent scholarship in queer anthropology (loosely 2015-21), drawing out queer as (1) a challenge to categorical legibility, (2) a way to rethink vitalities between bio-and necropolitics, (3) a field of political, social, and sensual erotics and desires, and (4) a deconstruction of normative knowledge projects and epistemologies. Throughout, I reflect on anthropology's place in a larger project of a queer theory from (and seeking) an elsewhere.

The paper addresses the problem of the cross-cultural study of sexuality in global times. I take issue with the inherent bias in analytical frameworks and theoretical assumptions that typically structure Western studies of non-normative sexuality in ‘other’ places, and provide a critical reconsideration of the challenges to queer studies of transnational sexuality.
Recent anthropology-based studies of transnational sexualities and sexual globalization argue that Anglo-US queer studies emphasize desirable queerness as modeled on modern, Western ideologies of sexual freedom, identity, openness, and individual rights. The effect is one of considerable political consequence, where Western queer life-worlds become the default analytical yardstick for cross-cultural comparison, and where Anglo-US-centric categorizations forever anchor desirable queer formations within a Western knowledge circuit.
My discussion draws upon my own research of Chinese women’s narratives about lala, or lesbian, community and activism in post-millennial Beijing. I consider what lesbian identity, activism and rights might mean in a Chinese political and cultural context, and ponder the possibilities and limits of current analytical frameworks in this respect. I conclude that ethnography as method, theory, and academic-activist ethics, provides an invaluable tool for the study of transnational sexualities. It helps us move beyond the binaries of absolute and categorical differences between a Western queer self and the non-Western lesser other.

(German translation available under "Translation" section of author's site.) Provides an overview of how "intimacy" is being used as an analytical term in feminist/queer transnational analysis, as a way to bypass the pitfalls of identity categories and to capture the relational effects of capitalism, racial history, and colonialism.

THIS DISCUSSION ADDS TO the body of literature on young girls and their relationships with each other, through an exploration of the experiences of self-identified ‘tomboys’ and ‘sissy girls’ in early childhood. It does this through the memories of experiences identified by women. It is not our intention to have adult women speaking on behalf of children; rather, their experiences demonstrate how gendered identity is constructed and negotiated in childhood. They represent critical points in the process of gender construction in early childhood for each of these women, and have practical implications for early childhood professionals working with children today. In all cases, the women considered these critical moments as fundamental in shaping their lives. McLeod and Yates (2006) point out that reflexive memory can provide new readings of the past and present. These experiences provide a valuable avenue in which to gain insight to the complexities and contradictions associated with ...

""Purpose – This paper develops a conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between sexual dissidence, gender transgression and commercial hospitality. It is argued that this can be used to examine how ideological assumptions about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) consumers are mobilised in the production and consumption of hospitality spaces.

Approach – The paper synthesises three theoretical strands: first, Turner’s concepts of the liminoid and communitas; second, anthropological and socio-political conceptions of myth and myth-making; and third, Lefebvre’s spatial dialectic in the production of material, abstract and symbolic space. It is argued that, when considered together, these theoretical approaches help to understand the consumer experience, the ideological assumptions that underpin the experience, and the processes through which the experience is constructed.

Research implications – The application of this framework in empirical research can enhance our understanding of the role of commercial hospitality spaces in reproducing and challenging particular ideological assumptions about LGBT consumers. It can inform the operational strategies of commercial organisations. Furthermore, it can underpin a critical perspective on management, which encourages practitioners to develop a sense of social responsibility towards the communities of consumers they target.

Originality/value – The holistic nature of this approach helps to analyse the relationship between consumption and community ideologies at the micro level of personal interaction, the meso level of group and organisational norms, and the macro level of societal structures and agencies. Applying this framework to empirical research will also help to understand the nature of consumption and production within commercial hospitality. 
""

Die Bestattungspraxis in Deutschland ist von Machtverhältnissen, insbesondere von Klassismus geprägt. Aktuell werden immer mehr arme Menschen in Deutschland, für die keine Zugehörigen die Bestattungspflicht wahrnehmen (können), ohne Grabstein und Namen, ohne Trauerfeiern und Blumenschmuck von Gesundheits- und Ordnungsämtern anonym bestattet. Teilweise, wie z.B. in dem Berliner Bezirk Neukölln, finden die ordnungsbehördlichen Bestattungen monatlich als Sammelbeerdigung im Minutentakt statt. Oft wurden diese Menschen schon zu Lebzeiten durch Klassismus, Rassismus und psychosoziale Normalitätsvorstellungen marginalisiert und gesellschaftlich ausgegrenzt.
Francis Seeck zeigt in diesem Buch den Zusammenhang zwischen Machtverhältnissen und Beerdigungspraktiken auf. Aber auch die eigene Geschichte der Autor_in hat ihren Platz. So geht es auch um widerständige Praktiken auf der Friedhofswiese, sei es durch die Forscher_in, Trauergäste, Aktivist_innen und Mitarbeiter_innen – ganz im Sinne von „Rest in protest!“.

Die Autor*in:
Francis Seeck ist Kulturanthropolog_in und lebt in Berlin. Francis promoviert zu Collective Care in Trans*_genderqueer Aktivismus, lehrt und arbeitet als Antidiskriminierungstrainer_in.

https://www.edition-assemblage.de/recht-auf-trauer/

Explains how "sexual rights" as human rights emerged from feminist, health, anti-violence, and LGBT organizing in 1990s political conditions. Discussion of the geopolitics, history, and critiques of this advocacy. || Explica cómo los "derechos sexuales" como derechos humanos surgieron de la organización feminista, de salud, contra la violencia y LGBT en las condiciones políticas de la década de 1990. Discusión de la geopolítica, la historia y las críticas de esta defensa. || وضاحت کرتا ہے کہ 1990 کی دہائی کے سیاسی حالات میں فیمنسٹ، صحت، انسداد تشدد اور ایل جی بی ٹی تنظیم سے انسانی حقوق کے طور پر "جنسی حقوق" کیسے ابھرے۔ جغرافیائی سیاست، تاریخ اور اس وکالت کی تنقید پر بحث۔ || يشرح كيف ظهرت "الحقوق الجنسية" كحقوق إنسان من تنظيم النسوية والصحة ومناهضة العنف والمثليين في تسعينيات القرن العشرين الظروف السياسية. مناقشة الجغرافيا السياسية والتاريخ وانتقادات هذه الدعوة. || Explica como os "direitos sexuais" como direitos humanos emergiram da organização feminista, de saúde, antiviolência e LGBT nas condições políticas dos anos 1990. Discussão da geopolítica, história e críticas a essa advocacia.

This paper examines the processes through which a commercial bar is transformed into a hospitable space. Drawing on a study of a venue patronized by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual/transgender consumers, it considers how social and commercial forms of hospitality are mobilized. The paper argues that hospitable space has an ideological, normative and situational dimension. More specifically, it suggests the bar’s operation is tied to a set of ideological conceptions, which become the potential basis of association and disassociation among consumers. It examines the forces and processes that shape who participates in the production and consumption of hospitality and how. Finally, it considers the situational, emergent nature of hospitality and the discontinuous production of hospitable space. Rather than focusing exclusively on host-guest or provider-customer relations, which dominates existing work on hospitality, the paper examines how consumers’ perceptions, actions and interactions shape the production of hospitality. By doing so the paper offers an alternative approach to understanding queer spaces, bar operation as well as hospitality.

Special issue of the French Gender and Sexuality Studies journal, "Genre, Sexualité et Société".

LGBTI and Queer Art, Culture and Activism : Cultures, identities and collective mobilizations in art and media production.

Deadline: March 15 2021.

Special Issue Editors:
Louise Barrière (PhD Candidate in Popular Music & Performing Arts, Université de Lorraine)
Mélodie Marull (PhD in Visual Arts, Université de Lorraine)

Shinjuku Ni-chome (an area in central Tokyo) contains the highest concentration of queer establishments in the world, with some estimates suggesting that there are approximately 300 gay (and 17 lesbian) bars within its confines. Each of these bars seeks to target a specific subset of the Japanese gay community, with bars coming to be associated with semiotic structures indexing certain gay subjectivities. With this plethora of bars, it is natural that the district is awash with sound: both the sounds of revellers partying in the district and the recorded and live music from the various bars seeping into the streets. Following recent trends in sonic anthropology, I investigate how the gay men visiting the district consume and understand the music, both live and recorded, which leaks into the streetscape. I argue that each bar creates a “soundscape” which forms part of the semiotic structure that indexes the bars’ target gay subjectivities. I argue that musical genre is one aspect of the soundscape that is utilised by bar owners to target specific “Types” of gay men and explore this through looking at how jazz, enka (a popular form derived from Japanese folk music), and a musical genre developed in Ni-chōme known as onē-ha (a sub-genre of Electronic Dance Music) are understood as indexing specific gay subjectivities. Throughout the presentation, I reflect on the usefulness of sonic ethnography to the study of queer space and identity.

"Keywords: adultism; classism; heteronormativity; intersectionality; mad studies; sanism; sexism; sexuality

This article explores the exercise of heterosexist-infused power relations within a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) inpatient unit in the UK. The ways in which heterosexism may wield its power within CAMHS in conjunction with the support of sexism, adultism, classism and sanism are discussed. That is, this article contributes to the understanding and subverting of heteronormativity in practice. With this focus in mind, other forms of intersecting oppressions are detailed to highlight the role they play in both controlling young people and teaching them about the workings of patriarchy and social norms. The aim of the article is to contribute to the disruption of the heteronormativity inherent in the arrangements within CAMHS and the dominant normative practice that produces multiple subjectivities in this setting."

Máster Universitario en Estudios LGBTIQ+
Facultad de Geografía e Historia
Facultad de Ciencias de la Información
Grupo de Investigación GECA: (Género, Estética y Cultura Audiovisual)
Grupo de investigación Expehistoria
Proyecto de Innovación Docente
“Innovación en recursos educativos en abierto, enseñanza virtual, competencias digitales e Internacionalización de la docencia en Comunicación y Cultura en el Máster en Estudios LGBTIQ+ para una universidad diversa (Agenda 2030)”  (nº 211)

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of what I refer to as a group of working-class queer women and their uneasy relationship with transnationally funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Taking a queer, post-colonial perspective on transnational governmentality of bodies and sexuality, the research shows the friction between working-class queer women and NGO spaces in this regard. Firstly, this dissertation focuses on the disconnect between NGOs that purport to work with sexual minorities and their inability to connect with ‘lesbians,’including those queer women who attend NGO events, and focuses on how technologies of recognition and confession are carried through NGO spaces, as a form of neoliberal transnational governmentality. In this vein, this work examines the ways in which certain cisgender male dominated NGOs in Accra have come to be historically reliant on northern donor (public …

This paper examines the multiple queer spaces that constitute a queer socio-spatial landscape in Damascus, from a shopping street, to a small bar, cruising parks, public baths, and the Internet. Men deliberately cross the borders that differentiate, yet connect, these spaces, from the physical environment to personal and social histories, the codes and social networks embedded within these scenes. Based on an ethnography conducted between 2010 and 2011, this paper considers how movement among these spaces produces the collective makings of differentiated queer subjectivities. I focus on movement to explore the ways in which queer bodies and subjectivities take shape as effects of the relations between these bordering spaces while men pass through and inhabit them. There is no monolithic sexuality in Damascus, but many kinds that are bordered and porous, and come together in complex ways. Movement is a form of expression and of articulating claims to certain relations that make queerness intelligible in Damascus’ urban space. This paper builds on literature in queer geography and ethnography about the social production of queer space to think about a framework of movement by which men narrate and express different forms of queer subjectivity.

Purpose of this paper
    This paper examines customers’ participation in the production of commercial hospitality. Drawing on a study of queer consumers (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals), the paper considers the ways in which frequently circulated understandings, or myths, shaped consumers’ actions. The case study is used to highlight previously under examined dimensions of participation.

Design/methodology/approach
    The paper draws on an ethnographic study of bar culture. The principal method of data collection was participant observation, which involved working at one venue for 27 months, as well as social visits throughout a five year period. Participant observation was complemented by semi-structured interviews with 26 informants, 19 of whom were interviewed repeatedly during the research. 

Findings
    The paper suggests that three myths were evident in consumers’ behavior: commonality, mutual safety, and the opportunities for liberated, playful consumption. Focusing on two particular aspects of participation: performative display and frontline labor, the paper discusses the ways in which these myths influenced patrons’ actions.

Research implications
      The study suggests that an examination of the cultural dimensions of patronage provides crucial insights into consumer participation. The results will be relevant to social scientists and management academics seeking to understand the relationship between shared interest and identity, consumption, and the production of hospitable spaces.

Originality/value
      This study provides a new understanding of both the nature of and motivations for consumer participation. This challenges existing approaches, which have tended to focus narrowly on the managerial aspects of participation in the service sector.

We first met around a workshop table at the queer Internet studies (QIS2) in Philadelphia in February 2017. This conversation began when we realized that we all had some disciplinary knowledges, training and practice that can bear upon queer Internet studies, but simultaneously we felt unprepared for the methodological-ethical challenges posed by the Internet as a queer research environment. Michelle was trained in ethnography as an anthropologist and Jasmine and TL were trained in humanities perspectives — mostly through literature, performance studies and art history, though about five years ago they had begun to retrain in the fields of online archives, pedagogies and networks, which has led to a new collaborative research project on digital research ethics. We had all been trained in dyke/queer/feminist methods and critical theory, and continue to work in this area. And we all were experiencing some gut feelings about the need for better understandings of disciplinary practices — what we are doing, how do we apply what we know how to do, and why are we doing it — across disciplines as we enter the Internet as researchers, in a research situation. What follows is a conversation the three of us had over email and videoconference between July–October 2017, which revolved around the question of what ethnographic methods can bring to Internet research, and what might queer and feminist research ethics look like in the context of digital research environments.