I am glad to see that these students choose to take what Eve Sedgwick calls the “universalizing” view of queer studies, rather than the “minoritizing” view. While the latter sees queer sexualities as relevant only to those who identify as queer, the former sees queer sexualities influencing all of human culture.
Douglas Ray, How to Teach Queer Studies In Alabama
This quote inspired me do a little more research into the work of Eve Sedgwick, because I felt this was the core of this article, of queer theory and feminist theorizing, in general. Eve Sedgwick, author of Epistemology of the Closet, provided two approaches to understanding homosexuality. The “minoritizing” view others the queer community as a distinct population who are authentically, completely, and separately gay from the “rest.” Alternatively, Sedgwick suggests (in a very Kinsey fashion) the “universalizing” approach: that all people are personal affected by sexual diversity and fall on a spectrum of homosexuality AND all people all personally affected by the implications of how we marginalize, oppress, and other groups. So, these two terms were what intrigued me and I pulled out of the reading.