Homonormativity Homonormativity was first coined by Lisa Duggan in her work The New Homonormativity: The Sexual Politics of Neoliberalism where she describes “the new homonormativity – it is a politics that does not contest dominant heteronormative assumptions and institutions [such as gay marriage or the right to serve openly in the military] – but upholds…
Gender Performativity Post-structuralist feminist philosopher Judith Butler first used the term gender performativity in her work Gender Trouble (1990). Butler states that gender, which is a socially constructed idea, is a continuous performance of the mythical notions of what constitutes male and female gender identities. Butler points out that “the body is only known through…
Biopower and Biopolitics The French philosopher, social theorist and historian Michel Foucault, is concerned with how modern society is controlled, subjugated and regulated through “biopower”. Biopower is a complex social theory that examines the strategies and mechanisms by which society is organized and managed through an authoritative regime of power, knowledge, and systems of subjugation.…
What is Intersectionality? Intersectionality is a concept coined by law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. It is commonly used in critical theory to illustrate how different forms of discriminationatory and oppressive institutions (such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, ageism, ableism, xenophobia, etc..) are interconnected and and cannot be analyzed and examined in vacuum of…
As so many of us focus our work around online campaigns it’s really useful to know how social media drives norms (or doesn’t….). Here’s a great article from Scientific American that might help inform some of your future plans! Also worth reading on the same topic is the Washington Post’s article “More than 26 million people have…
From The Advocate In 1971, the day before the U.K. Gay Liberation Front planned to hold London’s first official Pride march, half a dozen radical drag activists took it upon themselves to run a dress rehearsal. It was a resounding success, one which saw them chased down Oxford Street by the metropolitan police. Over a…
Check out this interesting article about what messages our opponents use. They really know no limits. This is definitely “going too far”. But beyond outrage, what messaging can we oppose to this fear-mongering tactics. Research shows that upfront combatting this argument would just make things worse. Campaigns would be better off engaging the voters on…
Safety and Security Online Browsing and Communicating Securely Online When you’re signing into any website, always make sure to check that you’re URL begins with https:// (and not just http://). This signals that your website connection is secure, encrypted, and less prone to unwanted snooping, tampering, or identity theft online. However, while many websites are…
Photography as a Form of Artistic Resistance As LGBTQ rights make bigger and bigger grounds every year in the fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, race, class, and all the ways these identities intersect – photography has been a useful tool towards putting a face to those that went around unseen. Some…
Your campaign objectives should be: Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-Bound This will help you set clear targets that can become a reality, focus your campaign team around agreed upon goals and objectives, remain on target throughout your work, stick to set deadlines, continuously assess your progress, and utilize all your resources. Specific …