Possible paper topics…
Here are some ideas for your queering gender short essays.
Important Note: Originally, I had stated that you must use 4 texts in each essay. I have decided to reduce the number to 2 texts. You may use more, but you must closely and critically engage with your chosen texts in your essay.
Here are some possible topics to choose for your paper. You can pick one of these or write on a completely different question/topic:
According to Butler, what it gender? What is the relationship between sex, gender, desire? What is the significance of her claims? How does her definition of gender complicate some feminist understandings of gender?
Does sex have a history? What does Butler have to say about this? What about Thomas Laquer? Riki Wilchins?
Is drag subversive? According to Butler, how does drag complicate our understanding of gender as expressive? Is drag always subversive? What is drag? What is the relationship between drag and camp, as Esther Newton discusses in Mother Camp?
Hooks writes: “When I first heard that there was this new documentary film about black gay men, drag queens, and drag balls I was fascinated by the title. It evoked images of the real Paris on fire, of the death and destruction of a dominating white western civilization and culture, an end to oppressive Eurocentricism and white supremacy� (149). Taking up hooks’ question, Is Paris Burning? What is meant by the title, “Paris is Burning?� Does this film (and its representation of drag) challenge or reinforce capitalism? How does it complicate or reinforce the “American dream�? What does Butler suggest is the significance of this documentary for challenging and rethinking the “heterosexual matrix of intelligibility� or the “heterosexual hegemony�?
How do queer theories erase the lives of transgendered people? Why is thinking/writing about transgendered issues important for those queering theory?