The academic field emerging from the intersection of feminist theory and gay/lesbian studies in the early 1990s — questioning the stability of sexual identity categories, heteronormativity, and the political investments of identity politics.
Heteronormativity critique: Queer Theory's key contribution is showing that heterosexuality is not a natural baseline but a norm requiring continuous performance and enforcement — and that this norm structures social institutions, cultural production, and knowledge. Key concepts: heteronormativity (the assumption that heterosexuality is natural and universal), performativity (gender and sexuality as produced through repeated acts rather than expressing a prior essence), the closet (the open-secret structure of homosexuality in culture), and the critique of identity politics (challenging stable identity categories as disciplinary formations). The field emerged from Foucault, Butler's Gender Trouble, and Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet.
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