Sexuality and Space - Criticisms & Conflicts

Criticisms & Conflicts

There have been several critiques of the field, as well as conflicts within the discipline. Studies of sexuality and space has been criticized for universalizing a Western-centric position that has minimal relevance beyond the urbanized Western world. These ideas of sexuality constitute a new homonormativity, which typically privileges white, middle-class males, to the exclusion of trans people, the lower class, and people of colour. Institutions meant to create non-heteronormative spaces, such as the Gay Games, are only accessible to those who are able to afford registration fees, airfare and training, and remain predominantly white. Gender differences are also erased in adopting a “queer” identity. Some assert that by foregoing the gendered term “lesbian” for “queer”, women are left unrecognized by such a universalizing signifier - like when women are incorporated under “mankind”.. Thus, while progress is made on challenging heteronormativity, queer studies have been criticized for potentially reinforcing other forms of marginalization.

Early work on lesbian and gay geographies throughout the 1990s was done by academics working in American universities, and focused almost exclusively on the lives of those in the global North. This is problematic as the queer identity is sometimes used as a global, all-encompassing identity for the LGBT community, thus imposing Western notions of sexuality on all other cultures. Such ideas include unchallenged assumptions as to the nature of “gay rights”, and what proper liberation looks like. As a result, certain cultures are labelled “forward” or “backward” based on a Western conception of the queer identity, and the cultural nuances and diversity of other sexualities are left unrecognized.

Conflicts within studies of sexuality and space also exist. One such conflict is between “assimilationist” and “liberationist” perspectives on LGBT spaces. Toronto’s gay village is a site of such conflict. Assimilationists are against the creation of a “gay ghetto” in Toronto, advocating instead for the integration of LGBT people into suburbs, to show that they are just like everybody else. Liberationists see the gay village as too commercial to develop the radical, activist community they see as necessary for LGBT rights. As such, Toronto’s gay village is not simply a homogenous space for sexual dissidents, but is an unfixed and contested space.