TaraElla Responds: Queer Theory Is The Problem

After reading some of the letters and responses I received for my last article (What is a Woman: A Trans Woman's Perspective, Jan 27), and thinking more about the fact that trans people shouldn't be in conflict at all with the long-standing archetypes of 'male' and 'female', I have come to the conclusion that Queer Theory is the problem here.

Indeed, the narratives of many, if not most, trans people wouldn't make sense at all without the archetypes of 'male' and 'female' being there, and meaning something concrete, in the first place. In a world without 'male' and 'female' as meaningful concepts, trans identity wouldn't make sense at all. The total deconstruction of the concepts of 'male' and 'female' would thus be as harmful for trans people as it is for non-trans people.

This, I think, leads us back to the source of the problem: Queer Theory. Basically, Queer Theory is postmodernized critical theory applied to LGBT issues, and I guess you could see it as a cousin of critical race theory, which is postmodernized critical theory applied to race. Queer Theory is also fundamentally rooted in the ideas and worldview of the postmodern thinker Michel Foucault. Queer Theory says that 'male', 'female', 'gay', 'straight', and so on are all social constructs, shaped by discourse and performance, rather than reflecting a fundamental reality.

The problem with Queer Theory is that it is anti-essentialist in a fundamentalist way. Taken to its logical conclusion, almost everything is a social construct (including trans identity), and nothing has any concrete meaning at all! This is why it's such a bad basis on which to argue for trans acceptance and trans rights. Hence, I totally believe that Queer Theory's ideas are fundamentally detrimental to trans people.

Going forward, I think we should talk a lot more about Queer Theory and its adverse influence on the trans discourse. I think it's time we stopped ignoring the elephant in the room.