Introduction T1 112011033 Full text

1997. qtd. in Harris 2005. It means that queer theory is a new literary theory, the post modernism, as Donelson- Sim’s explains in her journal about queer theory 2014. This theory aims to criticize and intervene or even change the traditional belief that everyone is a homosexual. Queer theory also aims to urge equality toward those marginalized group – the homosexual, just like what Foucault said in his book, ‘The History of Sexuality’ that “homosexuality began to speak in its own behalf, to demand that its legitimacy or n aturality be acknowledged” 99. According to SWIRL www.sou.edu “to say that someone is queer indicates an indeterminacy or indecipherability about their sexuality and gender, a sense that they cannot be categorized without a careful contextual examination and, perhaps, a whole new rubric” qtd. in Harris 2005. It means that to determine whether or not someone is queer is not easy. Klages explains that “queer theory concerns itself with any and all forms of sexuality that are queer in this sense--and then, by extension, with the normative behaviors and identities which define what is queer by being their binary opposites ” qtd. In Harris 2005. It implies that society always see things in two binary oppositions. It tells us that the normative sexuality is heterosexual; while the binary opposition is the homosexual. Further, Walter explains that “the queer challenge to the notion of sexual identity as monolithic, obvious, and dichotomous is a healthy corrective to our vexing inability to see beyond the limitations of the homohetero opposition ” 832. Heteronormativity Ingraham and Wagenknecht explain that the concept of heteronormativity refers to an interdependence of gender and sexuality which defines gender as a binary category and naturalizes sexual attraction as directed at the oppositional gender qtd. In Hofstätter 1. It means that heteronormativity does not give people freedom to choose their sexual orientation; it forced people to be hetero. It is a shaped belief created by society and always been taught unconsciously since we were a kid. This norm is being naturalized by giving us the very basic explanation about heterosexual, having a sexual orientation to persons of the opposite sex. Hofstätter added that “heteronormativity expresses a basic structure of social units and institutions such as kinship, marriage and family relations as well as relations of friends, people at work, etc ” 2 The idea of heteronormativity is the same with Adrienne Rich’s idea about ‘Compulsory Heterosexuality’ 1986. Compulsory means it is a must, and it means everyone is forced to be heterosexual. The term ‘compulsory heterosexuality’ becomes a norm that shapes someone’s sexuality because according to Rich’s idea, we all live in a society that demands and expec ts ‘compulsory heterosexuality’. In this case, Rich is trying to say that heterosexual will be labeled as ‘normal’ while homosexual will always be labeled ‘non-normal’. Another famous term was proposed by Judith Butler 1990 with her ‘heterosexual matrix’ - “to designate that grid of cultural intelligibility through which bodies, genders, and desires are naturalized” 151 - which represents a “social and cultural system of order, thinking and perception, forcing humans into the form of physically and socially binary and clearly distinct genders bipolar gender system which are hierarchically and complementarily positioned, the desire of which is targeted at the oppositional gender and is thus forming gender and sexual identity” reception by Klapeer 2010, 26; translation by B.H. qtd. In Hofstätter 2 . Heterosexuality and gender as a binary category appears to be ‘naturally’ given and ‘normal’. All individuals are forced to position themselves within this matrix – either as conforming to the norm or as ‘the other’ homo-, bi-, a-, trans-, intersexual etc. 3.