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juyong (aaron) roh

In the essay, Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queen, Cathy Cohen pays attention to the feature of queer political activism. Society in this period was trying to change the understanding and responding to sexuality and oppressed the minor communities such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. Dominant society categorizes heterosexuality as the top class of society, and state that heterosexuality is norm and oppressed queer activists. Cathy Cohen found that looked at the factors that inhibited the radical potential of queer activism. Cath Cohen states that heteronormativity, the idea that homosexual relationship is bad, stopped growing of the queer activism. She is worried about “those manifestations of queer politics in which the capital and advantage invested in a range of sexual categories”(441) are ignored. Therefore, it brought to the result of reproduction of political identities that are narrowed and homogenized so that it inhibits the radical potential of queer politics. She thought it limited the character of queer politics that are comprehensive and transformational. To go against this unfair treatment, people who were discriminated and oppressed stood up together to show that they also have identity and there is no difference between homosexuality and heterosexuality. Queer activists were focusing on removing this discrimination and oppression. However, People who were queer activist were people in the minor societies such as black so that they had less advantages to describe their status to other people. Unfortunately, oppression on this group continued and they didn’t get chance to get accepted in the society as norm. If we look at the society we live nowadays, there are still so many forms of things that minority people get oppressed and not accepted as the part of their society. Although there are many people who are trying to show people that there are no harm to accept them as society, people still avoid to accept them in society.