***Apologies for cross-postings***

2^nd CFP: Straight up! Exploring anti-heteronormative heterosexual activism

Session at the 2013 European Geographies of Sexualities Conference, to be held in Lisbon, Portugal on 5-7 september, 2013.

Session organizers: Valerie De Craene, Maarten Loopmans

This session proposal addresses the issue of heterosexual activism and resistance against heteronormativities. How is collective mobilization against heteronormative pressures expressed amongst straight people, how do non-heteronormative sexualities attempt to carve out a space for themselves as against hegemonic heteronormative powers? The mobilization around LGBT identities has attracted considerable scholarly attention since the 1970s, but analyses of activism from the side of marginalized heterosexuals to defend sexual rights against heteronormative pressures have been considerably fewer (Hekma, 2004). Moreover, the focus on LGBT identities caused a shift in understandings of queer theory. Rather than challenging the idea of the preconstituted sexual subject and understanding power as productive rather than simply oppressive, critical geographers working on heteronormativity tend to depict queer spaces as spaces of gays and lesbians or queers existing in opposition to and as trangsressions of heterosexual space (Oswin, 2008).

Yet, individualization and global migration have opposed various heterosexualities and led to more open confrontations over hegemonous definitions of heterosexualities. From the Pedophile Party to the Asexuality Visualisation and Education Network (www.asexuality.org), from the Nudist movement (Woodall, 2002; Cooper, 2011) to the feminist coalitions over the right to wear a veil (Bracke & Fadil, 2011), from emancipatory struggles of sex workers (Kempadoo, 2003) to punters’ solidarity forums (Loopmans, 2006) and the right to sex for people with disabilities (Bahner, 2012), various non-heteronormative heterosexualities have become more vociferous in defending their place and their sexual rights and have mobilized to question dominant heteronormativities, with variable success.

The overall aim of this session is to develop a better theoretical understanding of anti-heteronormative heterosexual activism and to explore its various guises empirically. We want to understand how new bases for activism and mobilization develop, and how defending marginalized heterosexualities affect spatial and social mobilization patterns and strategies. We invite both theoretical and empirical papers which might contribute in understanding these issues.

topics may include but are not limited to:

-comparative analyses of various anti-heteronormative mobilizations

-theoretical confrontations of the literatures on mobilisation and social movement with theories on marginalized heterosexualities

-empirical investigations of acts of citizenship of diverse heterosexual groups

- policy/political reactions towards anti-heteronormative heterosexual activism

-cross-gender/cross-sexual anti-heteronormative collaborations and solidarities

 

Proposals (max. 250 words) can be submitted by email until April 18, 2013 to:

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Valerie De Craene

Sociale en Economische Geografie - Afdeling Geografie
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES)
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Celestijnenlaan 200E, bus 2409
3001 Leuven, Belgium

Tel: 016/32.24.44

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