Harriet Malinowitz Response

Queer Texts, Queer Context by Harriet Malinowitz

Summary:  In her article Queer Texts, Queer Context Harriet Malinowitz attempts to argue on queer theory and gay, lesbian, and bisexual students in the writing classroom. She argues that we go through classes; schools even organizations. Also that we attempt to explore multiculturalism but often fail to regard homosexuals, as everything is almost automatically heterosexually based. She argues this a result commonly because of homophobia or discomfort on the part of the teacher and/or students in writing classes. She also discusses how it is hard to look at things this way or for students that are homosexual to advance because of the prejudice they receive from multiple sources like friends, family, teachers, peers and society in general. Malinowitz’s uses her two writing classes specifically themed around gay and lesbian discourse to help talk about and drive her points. She states in the beginning that her main point was “on the processes by which lesbian or gay writers generate and authorize knowledge, and the conditions which affect their composing processes in collaborative classrooms.” Then later she explains how this view changed as she noticed that you can’t actually generalize in this manner. Harriet argues that people all have different ideas or images in their minds of homosexuality and this leads to her deciding that this is actually more the feeling of otherness. She discusses the composition from the viewpoint of the lesbian and gay community and how it is different. She talks about ways in which they perceive writing and how they have to perform differently based on the image they have or don’t want to have. Harriet’s main discussion is around the writing in queer centric environments, how compositions might better serve lesbians and gays and the problems they have dealing with it. Also that including lesbian and gay thinking rather than all heterosexual thinking can benefit the classroom and students in and out of composition.

Synthesis: This article is one in that of its own and I believe is very hard to relate to any other story at all. I think if it could relate to any article at all it would be Brandht. I think that it is this way because they both talk about the effects of your surroundings. They discuss how they affect who you are and the way in which you think. In Brandht’s article the focus is on discourse and writing but it still relates greatly in my opinion in the hidden eliminates involved in Harriet’s article. This is because Harriet’s discussion al revolves around our surroundings and how we perceive things. Another point is that we also think and act in ways based on our teachings and how we gain and receive information.

Questions for Journaling and Discussion:

2. This presence of lesbian and gay discourses in composition classroom are just as important as heterosexual presence because it allows for more exploration and understanding. When a discourse is solely heterosexual it shrinks the compositions abilities and areas of reach because it doesn’t have information or a viewpoint that of a homosexual. Homosexual presence can allow for broader range of thinking for the composers. This also enables composers to know and be aware of the differences between hetro- and homosexuals. Also it gives better understanding of information and thinking all around as to prevent prejudice and create better work.

5. Truth deconstructed the category of “woman” which was saw as weak, needy, annoying, whinny, lazy and little princess. Truth was an African American woman who had been a slave and made it clear that woman in fact can be just as strong, enduring, inspiring, hardworking, honest and smart as men through her life experiences. Truth lost her kids and had to be a slave going through extremely harsh labor every day. This also came with mal nutriment and terrible sleep/sleeping arrangements. Not only that but facing the crack of a whip on her back and so forth. Truth should that she has experienced and endured all this; she proved that women can be just as strong and willing as men.

11. Revisit your pre-reading definition of the term “queer.” How has your definition changed as a result? I think after this reading I see the word queer as less offensive and more defiant. This word seems to play more of a definition or classification in this article. The term queer in this article seems to describe the way of thinking through a homosexual viewpoint. Queer is a different genre in the giant discourse community of sexual preference. This side is another force in which we can think and compose our works and opinions.

Applying and Exploring:

2. When I think about a discourse community I am involved in a few come to mind one of which is Xbox live. This is an online gaming feature where you can play with or against people all over the world. This community has its own language which includes thousands of words and phrases for live alone but also that specifically function with certain games. I received this language through playing for a long time and acquiring what the phrase and words meant, but also through communication and interaction with friends in and out of the community. I think that it would change myself or way of identification because it is a source of vocabulary. These are just different words and phrases then commonly used in the real world. This wouldn’t change or alter my ability to express myself it would just change how for say.

Meta Moment: I think that my instructor would think that the most important part of the article was expanding your thinking and opening your mind. This is because it has everything to do with what we are learning right now and it also goes with our current project. Not only this but it also helps keep us away from ignorant thinking and allows us to broaden our horizon and key in other elements when composing. This concept of queer text can enable you to produce a lot more while giving a possibly completely new perspective. Also I do think that society constructs what it is to be a man or a woman but it is more so unconsciously. The way we describe and see a man is affected by family values and thinking because it is what your taught to think and see it as. Also it is affected by everything in our culture like TV and magazines because of the way the portray men and women and what they think they are supposed to be like.

Opinion on Article: I thought that this article was very dry and hard to read for the 20 or so pages it was. I felt that the author repeated a lot of her information and could have gotten her points across much faster than she actually did. I think that the overall point was more directed at how we look at these communities and how we look at them. I think that it was repetitive how she remained on gays and lesbians the entire time and seemed to tell irrelevant stories and examples but none the less the article did offer a new perspective when looking at the homosexual community and how it has effects and is affected in our system politically, socially, educationally an so forth.