This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 1077800408329238v1 15/3/561    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Goltz, D. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Investigating Queer Future Meanings

Destructive Perceptions of "The Harder Path"

College of Communication, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, Dustinbradleygoltz{at}hotmail.com

This study interrogates the meanings that gay youth attach to the future, using discussion, creative engagement, and embodied performance to explore the possibility of queer fantasy as a resistant and generative site of future making. The project explores the creative potentials of focus group research as a method for education, exploration, and collaborative generation. The research identifies a strong gender divide in the narratives gay men and lesbians create about the future. Gay men associate primarily negative and gloomy meanings to future, strongly influenced by cultural myths of "the miserable, bitter, old man." Lesbian women associate more positive meanings to future, and their perceived future relies much more on heteronormative models of family and children. This article examines how access to heteronormative meanings of future affect overall perceptions of the future, problematizing an antinormative positioning of queer theory.

Key Words: queer • future • performance • heteronormativity • aging

This version was published on March 1, 2009

Qualitative Inquiry, Vol. 15, No. 3, 561-586 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1077800408329238


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?