If queer theory encourages the use of self, the blurring of our private, public and professional realms, and the rejection of social work’s tendency to see inclusion or assimilation into normalcy as anti-oppressive, would it be unprofessional to apply queer theory to social work practice? If so, who’s ready to let go of the fear of being unprofessional in order to practice queerly?
Applying queer theory to social work has the potential to assist social workers to deconstruct normalcy and draw attention to the “constructedness” of our lives and the events around us. A deeper understanding of queer theory may inspire practitioners to challenge taken-for-granted systems and categories, and play a radical role in people’s liberation. Despite its potential to contribute to emancipatory practice, queer theory has largely been ignored within social work and social work education (Hicks & Jeyasingham, 2016).
This blog post – designed to be a brief, not-too-academic introduction to queer theory and social work is a bit of a scrap book of dot points, quotes and notes – hopefully a queer starting point. I’ll take a look the tension between a queerer practice and social work’s “professionalism” and the tension between queer theory and anti-oppressive practice. I’ll finish with some calls to include queer theory in social work education, and my conclusion that now’s a great time to be an unprofessional queer.
A queer definition
Defining queer "would be a decidedly un-queer thing to do" (Sullivan, 2007, p. 43). Here I will use the term queer not as an umbrella term for LGBTIAQ, but rather as a perspective and politic – “often at odds with the normal” (MacKinnon, 2011, p. 140)
Queer challenges clear-cut notions about sexual identity through blurring the boundaries between identity categories. Queer theory is about being playful with ideas and turning knowledge inside out backward.
(MacKinnon, 2011, p. 140)
Queerness might help us understand: “how we take up sexuality/gender, how these categories come to mean what they do and what institutional practices give meanings to those categories” (Todd & Coholic, 2015, p. 288)
If social workers applied this understanding, what difference could it make? Would there be any male or female tick boxes? Would we expect someone’s gender to remain fixed? Could we change what it is within organisations that might make them unapproachable for anyone outside the norm?
As well as questioning categories associated with sex, gender, and sexuality, queer theory encourages “a critical unpackaging of how we know what we think we know” (Mackinnon, 2011, p. 140). This expansion beyond sex, gender and sexuality is sometimes referred to as “post queer.”
“Queer theory has strengths that make its import into the health disciplines and its export beyond the object of sex/uality highly productive” (Arguello, 2016, p. 237)
“…we think that these perspectives have much to offer the social work discipline, not least because they provide us with tools to challenge neo-liberal regimes and their strangulating effects on social welfare” (Hicks & Jeyasingham, 2016, p. 2358).
Public and Private
“Sexuality is socially constituted as private, embarrassing, taboo, and danger-filled” (Seal, 2019, p. 275) and queer theory questions that construction. Instead of adopting professional boundaries that conform to that construction, a queerer social work practice would see social workers relaxing their boundaries, and employing more use of self, to challenge heteronormativity… and reveal themselves as more human, instead of more professional.
Seal (2019) explains that this separation of private, public and professional actually causes distress for some people:
They try, and largely fail, to hold these multiple identities and constructions concurrently through a separation of private, public, and professional spheres. Through a conscious inarticulation and non-examination of inconsistent heteronormativities, because exploration causes pain, they nevertheless exhibit a fractured double consciousness (Du Bois & Edwards, 1906) that causes them distress and cognitive dissonance. This consciousness allows, and even necessitates the reinscribing of a number of damaging constructions, including the fetishisation of jealousy, the normality of jealousy, the myth of soulmates, and an unsustainable focusing on a partial view of respect in relationships (p. 272).
Perhaps a deeper understanding of queer theory could assist us to heal our “fractured double consciousness” and provide a new perspective in understanding what may be causing distress for the people we work with?
Liberation
There are some tensions between anti-oppressive practice and queer theory (MacKinnon, 2011, p. 139). As an example, queer theory questions the gay and lesbian liberation movement (Sullivan, 2007) that anti-oppressive practitioners may advocate for. This is because, from a queer perspective, marriage can be seen more as assimilation into normal as opposed to liberation from normal. Normal – in this case – is heteronormativity – a force that makes life for queers harder… so why fight to be included in that? Queer theory is concerned that there is “no room for difference” in such liberationist agendas and are suspicious of “universally applicable political goals or strategies” (Sullivan, 2007, p. 40).
Queerness might help us challenge: “the sterile intellectual context of social work where dogma has often ruled in relation to anti-oppressive practice” (Featherstone and Green, 2013, p. 1).
There are other examples of groups fighting for inclusion into systems that fail them :
· Queers attempting to assimilate into heteronormativity or homonormativity
· First nations groups calling for recognition within the constitution
· Diverse groups attempting to assimilate into white Australian culture
· Social workers attempting to assimilate into positivism, managerialism, and neoliberalism
Queerness might help us question:
· neo-liberal, white, national politics and homonormativity (Hicks & Jeyasingham, 2016)
· social work that privileges “scientism, pathology, and expert opinion” (Arguello, 2016, p. 232)
Queering SOCIAL WORK ED
MacKinnon (2011) calls for the introduction of queer theory in to social work education as a way to “open up discussions around a wide range of sexualities in the classroom” (p. 139). Acknowledging post-queer perspectives, Alexander (2005) states that working queer theory in to education “should not focus solely on introducing our many straight students to queer lives and stories; rather… [it] should be an invitation to all students—gay and straight—to think of the ‘constructedness’ of their lives in a heteronormative society (p. 375). On top of seeing the constructedness of their lives, Allen (2015) believes a queer perspective can point out the constructed nature of current events (p. 749).
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A QUEER PERSPECTIVE CAN BE ADOPTED BY ANYONE,
REGARDLESS OF SEX, GENDER, or SEXUALITY
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Queerness might help us understand: the constructedness of our lives, and of current events
Queer conclusion
So, if social workers adopted all of this – we’d likely be seen as unprofessional. But what does unprofessional really mean? If questioning heteronormativity, white supremacy, and all the other forces we know to be causing inequality and suffering makes us unprofessional, then it’s time to let go of the fear of being unprofessional. We can hold on to the parts of professionalism we love – like our commitment to ethical practice and communication. But we can bring our whole selves in to our work, encourage others to be their whole selves, and instead of trying to fit in or make others fit in, we can say “no thanks” to normalcy and start to imagine the alternative. In my opinion, now’s a really great time to be an unprofessional queer. And remember, you don’t even need to be gay to be queer.
“Queerness is not yet here.
Queerness is an ideality.
Put another way,
we are not yet queer.”(Muñoz, 2009, p.1)
Reading List
Allen, L. (2015). Queer Pedagogy and the Limits of Thought: Teaching Sexualities at University. Higher Education Research & Development, 34(4), 763–775.
Argüello, T. (2016). Fetishizing the Health Sciences: Queer Theory as an Intervention. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services 28.3: 231-44.
Eng, D. L., Halberstam, J. & Muñoz, J. E. (2005). What’s queer about queer studies now? Social Text, 23(3-4, Fall-Winter), 1-17.
Featherstone, B. & Green, L. (2013). Judith Butler. In Gray, M. and Webb, S. A. (eds), Social Work Theories and Methods: Sage.
Hicks, S. & Jeyasingham, D. (2016). Social Work, Queer Theory and After: A Genealogy of Sexuality Theory in Neo-Liberal Times. British Journal of Social Work 46.8: 2357-373.
MacKinnon, K. (2011). Thinking About Queer Theory in Social Work Education: A Pedagogical (In) Query. Canadian Social Work Review, 28(1), 139–144.
Muñoz, J. E. (2009). Introduction: Feeling Utopia. In Cruising Utopia (pp. 1-18): NYU Press.
Seal, M. (2019). The Interruption of Heteronormativity in Higher Education Critical Queer Pedagogies. 1st Ed: Palgrave Macmillan
Sullivan, N. (2007). A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory. New York University Press
Todd, S. & Coholic, D. (2015). Christian fundamentalism and anti-oppressive practice social work pedagogy: Rethinking the inclusion of fundamentalist beliefs within the queer-positive classroom’, in O’Neill, B. J., Swan, T. A. and Mule ́, N. J. (eds), LGBTQ People and Social Work: Intersectional Perspectives, Toronto, Canadian Scholars’ Press.