Abstract
Introduction
Applied to homosexuals, queer was initially a term of homophobic abuse, and while it retains that meaning, it is also now used as a neutrally descriptive term. (As an ethnic label, black has made the same semantic journey.) Queer is also provocative: a pejorative and stigmatizing word from the past is reclaimed by that much stigmatized grouping who have renegotiated its meaning. Because of this it has a distinct generational overtone. Younger academics love it; older ones hate it. One now sometimes finds queer used as an umbrella term for a coalition of culturally marginal sexual self-identifications, and at other times to describe a nascent theoretical model which has developed out of more traditional lesbian and gay studies (Annamarie Jagose 1996, 1). This essay will attempt to define queer theory and consider the claims of queer theorists that it helps us understand the production of knowledge about sexuality. The word queer was adopted because it was inclusive and easy to say. It overcomes the need to keep repeating lists by subsuming a variety of sexual identities under one umbrella word: "When you are trying to describe the community, and you have to list gays, lesbians, bisexuals, drag queens transsexuals, it gets unwieldy.
