Queer Studies Research Workshop Work in Progress

“Finally, She’s Accepted Herself!”: Coming Out Narratives in Neoliberal Times.  In contemporary, transnational liberal contexts, the public expression of homophobia is increasingly viewed as “unenlightened,” but heteronormativity has certainly not disappeared. Drawing on a broad archive including TV shows, psychological studies, online blogs, and Broadway hits, this paper analyzes mainstream public responses to queerness. I trace how increasingly same-sex attraction is not pathologized, but any perceived lack of “self-acceptance” is. This trend, I argue, disavows the continued presence of heteronormativity and LBGT oppression and indexes widespread adherence to a neoliberal model of the self.

Stephanie Clare is an Assistant Professor in Comparative Literature. Her PhD is in Women’s and Gender Studies, and her research focuses on the relationship between embodied, sentient experience and twentieth-century cultural representations of gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity.