Queer theory is an approach to literary and cultural study that began in the early 1990s. It builds on the work of the post-structuralist movement, questioning ideas of fixed identity and sexuality. Some of the key theorists associated with queer theory are:
Michel Foucault
Although not a queer theorist himself, Michel Foucault’s work on sexuality provides the foundation for queer theory. In The History of Sexuality (1976), Foucault argues that sexuality is culturally constructed and the idea of a fixed sexual identity is a relatively recent invention. Foucault introduced the idea that sexuality is discursively produced through power relations. This destabilized naturalized categories of sexuality and showed how normalization regulates sexuality within modern power structures.
Judith Butler
Judith Butler draws on Foucault in her hugely influential book Gender Trouble (1990). Butler argues that gender is performative – it is constructed and reinforced through repeated bodily acts and gestures. There is no pre-existing identity behind expressions of gender – identity is constituted through performance. This focus on the instability of identity calls into question heterosexual norms and the idea of fixed gender binaries.
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick is considered a founding theorist of queer theory. In her book Epistemology of the Closet (1990), Sedgwick argues that standard knowledge practices and structures are built around a homo/hetero binary that marginalizes those with fluid or non-normative sexuality. By making queer sexuality visible, we can break down rigid structures of thought and open up new ways of knowing. Sedgewick helped inaugurate the field of queer theory by applying queer as an analytical framework.
Gayle Rubin
Gayle Rubin’s 1984 essay Thinking Sex made an early call to study sexuality as a complex field of social interaction that cannot be reduced to identity. Rubin coined the idea of the ‘sex/gender system’ to describe how societies create hierarchies of sexual value to regulate sexual behaviors and identities. Her work encouraged the analysis of sexual oppression as distinct from, but overlapping with, gender oppression. This was an important precursor to theorizing queer sexuality specifically.
Teresa de Lauretis
Teresa de Lauretis coined the term ‘queer theory’ itself in a 1991 conference paper titled Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities. Here de Lauretis called for a new critical language and theoretical framework for talking about non-heteronormative sexuality. She positioned queer theory in opposition to mainstream lesbian and gay studies, which she saw as seeking integration and assimilation rather than radical critique of heteronormativity.
Lee Edelman
Lee Edelman’s polemical book No Future (2004) gave the nascent field of queer theory a more radical bent. Edelman argues that the social order is built around a reproductive ideology centered on the figure of ‘the Child.’ This privileges heteronormativity and excludes queerness, which he frames as a ‘death drive’ standing outside of biological reproduction. Edelman calls for queers to embrace their outsider status and refuse the dominant value system rather than seek inclusion.
José Esteban Muñoz
In Cruising Utopia (2009), José Esteban Muñoz draws on the work of philosopher Ernst Bloch to propose ‘queer utopianism’ as a way to productively re-imagine the future. Muñoz uses the idea of ‘queer futurity’ to explore how performance and imagination can not only critique the present but also prefigure alternative social possibilities beyond heteronormativity. His work develops a strain of queer theory concerned with hope and potentiality.
Jack Halberstam
Jack Halberstam also approaches queer theory through the lens of possibility, play and imagination. In books like The Queer Art of Failure (2011) and Gaga Feminism (2012) Halberstam explores alternatives to traditional logics of success and rigorously questions norms of all kinds. Their work aims to detach queer theory from its moorings in lesbian and gay male paradigms and make it more radically inclusive of other identities and politics.
Sara Ahmed
In works like Queer Phenomenology (2006) and The Promise of Happiness (2010) Sara Ahmed brings queer theory into conversation with phenomenology and affect theory. Ahmed uses phenomenology to highlight how social power works through the very constitution of spaces and bodies. She also examines how the promise of ‘happiness’ offered by heteronormative social scripts regulates social life, arguing for the importance of unhappiness and queering as political strategies.
Paul B. Preciado
Paul B. Preciado’s Testo Junkie (2008) fuses autobiography and critical theory to offer a “pharmacopornographic” account of embodied gender transition. The book describes Preciado’s use of testosterone as both an irreverent “gender hacking” experiment and a micropolitical act dismantling the boundaries between outside and inside, nature and culture. Preciado’s genre-bending work sketches a vision for queer theory focused on technologies of gender and radical self-transformation.
Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner
Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner mapped out a vision for a public-oriented queer inquiry in their co-authored essay Sex in Public (1995). Berlant and Warner argue that the dominant heterosexual order depends on attempts to keep certain sexual practices private and shameful. They call on queer theory to study queer counterpublics that challenge this privatization and create alternative kinds of public intimacy.
| Theorist | Key text(s) | Main themes |
|---|---|---|
| Michel Foucault | The History of Sexuality | Sexuality as discursive construction |
| Judith Butler | Gender Trouble | Performativity of gender |
| Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick | Epistemology of the Closet | Hetero/homo binary, critique of knowledge |
| Gayle Rubin | “Thinking Sex” | Sex/gender system |
| Teresa de Lauretis | “Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities” | Coined “queer theory” |
| Lee Edelman | No Future | Queerness as death drive/anti-futurity |
| José Esteban Muñoz | Cruising Utopia | Queer futurity |
| Jack Halberstam | The Queer Art of Failure | Queer failure, imagination |
| Sara Ahmed | Queer Phenomenology | Phenomenology of queer experience |
| Paul B. Preciado | Testo Junkie | Gender hacking, pharmacopornographics |
| Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner | “Sex in Public” | Queer counterpublics |
This table summarizes some of the key theorists of queer theory, their major works, and their main theoretical contributions. While not exhaustive, it covers many of the foundational and contemporary thinkers in the development of queer theory from the 1990s to today.
There are a few broad trends we can identify in the evolution of queer theory over time. The foundational works in the 1990s from Butler, Sedgwick, de Lauretis and others focused on critiquing stable identity categories, troubling knowledge production, and legitimating the analysis of queer sexuality. In the 2000s, thinkers like Edelman, Muñoz, and Halberstam centered political possibility, futurity, utopia and the radical imagination. More recent work by figures like Ahmed and Preciado considers affective and technological dimensions of queerness. Despite differences, these thinkers are united in questioning dominant constructions of gender, sexuality and power.
While early queer theory originated among American academics, today it is a global and interdisciplinary field encompassing the humanities, sciences and social sciences. The theorists explored here represent some of the most prominent voices in queer theory, but many important contributions come from lesser-known figures and emerging scholars around the world. The diversity and eclecticism of queer theory is part of what gives the field its vibrancy.
Queer theory seeks to challenge normalizing ways of thinking about gender and sexuality. It aims to expand frameworks for conceptualizing identity, embodiment, and social action outside of heteronormative paradigms. This involves both posing incisive critiques of existing social configurations and imagining alternative future modes of gender and sexuality that we might work to create. The rich body of work by the theorists discussed here provides resources to support these goals and inspire new directions for queer theorization and politics.
Conclusion
Queer theory emerged as a distinct field of inquiry in the early 1990s that challenged fixed understandings of gender and sexuality. Some of the foundational thinkers include Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Teresa de Lauretis. In the 2000s and beyond, queer theorists like José Esteban Muñoz and Jack Halberstam explored queer futurity and alternative knowledge practices. Today, global thinkers like Sara Ahmed and Paul B. Preciado are pushing the field in new interdisciplinary directions. Though diverse, queer theorists are united in questioning dominant constructions of gender, sexuality and power relations. The work of these influential theorists provides tools to critique heteronormativity and imagine more just ways of living together in the world.