Queer Studies Creative Final

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Being Queer By Erica Dischino

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Queer Studies Final for Professor Bruce Henderson

Transcript of Queer Studies Creative Final

  • Being Queer By Erica Dischino

  • Often times, queer individuals must mask their sexuality in order to function in the outside world. This piece explores the societal oppression that those a part of the LGBTQ community often face. Whether its struggling with their identity, relationships and how others perceive them, each image portrays a specific common experience that reflects the everyday internal and external thought process. These thoughts of whether to adhere to the pressures of a

    heteronormative society or live their life openly can create emotional conflictions. Such conflictions include feelings of isolation, not having a safe place to express themselves, identity confusion but also wanting to live with

    happiness and become their truest self. Each photograph is paired with a quote from the queer literature we read throughout the semester. The quotes highlight the emotion in the photograph and conceptualize each experience. They were chosen specifically to emphasize certain characteristics that were consistent throughout studying the queer community. This project aims to shed light on those who are struggling in our heteronormative society and

    express the idea that no one is alone.

    In order to take these photographs I collaborated with a close friend of mine who recently came out as bisexual. With that in mind, she became the subject

    of this series. Through the collaboration, I was able to understand her individual struggle and try to apply it to a larger issue at hand. The emotion she expresses in the photographs, although they are illustrations and were

    not taken candidly, is what she feels as struggles to accept her own identity. It was moving to partake in a project that was a subject of great importance to

    me but also so deeply personal. This project was not only for myself, but also for my friend and all those who are struggling being queer.

  • All my favorite establishments were either overly crowded or pathetically empty. People either sipped fine vintages in celebration or gulped intoxicants of who cares what kind,

    drowning themselves in a lack of moderation, raising a glass to lower inhibitions, imbibing spirits to raise their own.

    The Book of Salt by Monique Truong

  • You can give each other something which will make both of you better forever if you will not be ashamed, if you will only not play it safe."

    Giovannis Room by James Baldwin

  • There is nothing within you that fights itself and hitherto you have had the instinct to produce antagonism in others which stimulated you to attack.

    The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein

  • Passion. Is there really no hope for humankind? I dont believe it. Passion, suffering, and more suffering to bear. But you must be passionate to know how to live and find whats most

    meaningful to you and know that there are those you really love. Then the pain will ease and youll have no regrets.

    Last Words From Montmartre by Qiu Miaojin

  • Just because you are not someones significant other, does not mean you are insignificant.

    Against Equality: Queer Revolution Not Mere Inclusion

    Edited by Ryan Conrad

  • I can no longer suffer such abuse, especially at this point in my life. I have my hands full.

    Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS by

    Martin Duberman

  • I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair.

    Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed.

    The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood

  • My dear boy, " Miss Frost said sharply. My dear boy, please don't put a label on me - don't make a category before you get to know me!

    In One Person by John Irving

  • The thing today is that authenticity is very important. But the more authentic you are, the less you tend to live up to peoples expectations...When you share your struggles, you dont

    live up to the image.

    Does Jesus Really Me?: A Gay Christians Pilgrimage in Search of God in America by Jeff Chu