Queer feminism, the
Queer feminism refers to a multifaceted movement of feminism, both activist and academic, that has gained increasing prominence in Germany since the 1990s.
Queer feminism assumes that gender is not biologically or psychologically predetermined, but that both, ⇒ sex and ⇒ gender as well as the roles tied to them are socially assigned. Gender, body and sexuality thus have mutable meanings that have evolved historically and culturally. The supposedly natural gender ⇒ binary and ⇒ heterosexuality (i.e., the organization of society on the basis of two genders, man, and woman, who are exclusively supposed to desire each other) are criticized as social norms. Queer feminism instead embraces a differentiated range of genders, sexualities, and forms of desire.
Queer feminism does not recognize womanhood as a universal perspective, as people who are ascribed female do not have a universal set of experiences. Heterosexual, white, lesbian, Black, transgender, poor women - they are all discriminated against in some ways similarly, in some ways differently. Different modes of discrimination therefore play an important role in queer feminism and are understood as a challenge to act in solidarity and to think through differences. The diverse composition of a queer feminist movement is thus influential for its visions and political demands.
Last updated: April 2025
Sources (in German)
- Braidotti, R. (1991): Patterns of dissonance. A study of women in contemporary philosophy. Polity Press. P. 142.
- Haraway, D. (1991): A cyborg manifesto: Science, technology, and socialist-feminism in the late twentieth century. In: Haraway, D.: Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge. P. 161.
- Klingner, C. (2019): Dualismenbildung: dem Denken vorfindlich, unausweichlich und falsch. In: B. Kortendiek, B. Riegraf & K. Sabisch (Hrsg.): Handbuch Interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung. Springer VS. Pp. 165-175.
- Lichtenstein S.; Rolling Eyes Collective (2019): Rolling Eyes Glossar: Ein Projekt der Hochschule Düsseldorf 2019, Fachbereich Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften. Düsseldorf. Last accessed 28.04.2025.
- Rohde-Dachser, C. (1991): Expedition in den dunklen Kontinent – Weiblichkeit im Diskurs der Psychoanalyse. Springer. P. 61
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