4. Like feminism, Queer Theory is a
political and cultural project: one that
wants to change the world as well as
analyse it.
Queer Theory is heavily influenced by
Judith Butler’s book Gender
Trouble(1990), the title of which gives
some indication of the theory’s key
objective: to break the link between the
categories of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ so that all
forms of sexual identity can be accepted
and celebrated.
16. You could argue that there is plenty of evidence
of ‘gender trouble’ everywhere in the cultural
landscape: gender-bending pop performers and
youth subcultures, advertisements that toy with
ideas of transgressive sexuality such as sado-
masochism, celebrities who acknowledge their
bisexuality and so on.
The presence of a gay or lesbian character in
television or film drama is no
longer, necessarily, a plot device or an exercise
in self-evident tokenism.