Paper Title
Queering the American Dream
Location
Room 220, DiGiorgio Campus Center (DiGs)
Keywords
Queer theory, American Dream, destabilizing, heteronormativity, liberation, gender binary
Start Date
April 2016
End Date
April 2016
Abstract
The American Dream is a motif that exerts normative influences and evinces limitations arising from its static, binary nature. The potential of the American Dream is better understood and more widely accessible when examined through a queer lens. This paper provides an historical review and analysis of the American Dream and proposes to extend queer theory beyond the academy. Queer is a concept that is broadly understood as simply an opposition to the norm. Just as feminists sought to disengage concepts of equality from a phallocentric model, the inherent instability of the word queer proves useful for reinterpreting gender, identify politics, linguistic constraints of normative language, and other sociologic forces. Queering the motif of the American Dream offers the promise of destabilizing the heteronormative reality, fostering a more inclusive Dream, and ultimately liberating the Dream from the confines of a binary and static domain. Queer is mutable and fluid and those disenfranchised from the American Dream may find that when the American Dream is liberated so too are all the Dreamers.
Queering the American Dream
Room 220, DiGiorgio Campus Center (DiGs)
The American Dream is a motif that exerts normative influences and evinces limitations arising from its static, binary nature. The potential of the American Dream is better understood and more widely accessible when examined through a queer lens. This paper provides an historical review and analysis of the American Dream and proposes to extend queer theory beyond the academy. Queer is a concept that is broadly understood as simply an opposition to the norm. Just as feminists sought to disengage concepts of equality from a phallocentric model, the inherent instability of the word queer proves useful for reinterpreting gender, identify politics, linguistic constraints of normative language, and other sociologic forces. Queering the motif of the American Dream offers the promise of destabilizing the heteronormative reality, fostering a more inclusive Dream, and ultimately liberating the Dream from the confines of a binary and static domain. Queer is mutable and fluid and those disenfranchised from the American Dream may find that when the American Dream is liberated so too are all the Dreamers.
