Investigating Queer Future Meanings

Destructive Perceptions of “The Harder Path

Bibliographic Data

ID2385347
AuthorsDustin Bradley Goltz (corresponding author), Dustin Goltz (DePaul University)
Year2009
Volume15
Issue3
Pages561-586
Publication date2009-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1077-8004 • E-ISSN: 1552-7565
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1077800408329238
OpenAlexW2167521166
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited25

This study interrogates the meanings that gay youth attach to the future, using discussion, creative engagement, and embodied performance to explore the possibility of queer fantasy as a resistant and generative site of future making. The project explores the creative potentials of focus group research as a method for education, exploration, and collaborative generation. The research identifies a strong gender divide in the narratives gay men and lesbians create about the future. Gay men associate primarily negative and gloomy meanings to future, strongly influenced by cultural myths of "the miserable, bitter, old man." Lesbian women associate more positive meanings to future, and their perceived future relies much more on heteronormative models of family and children. This article examines how access to heteronormative meanings of future affect overall perceptions of the future, problematizing an antinormative positioning of queer theory

Aesthetics · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Fantasy · Heteronormativity · Homosexuality · Lesbian · Mythology · Narrative · Queer · Queer theory · Sociology · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy

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