Queer Muslim Expression and Anxiety Under Modernity
Wolfe, Eve
Wolfe, Eve
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Abstract
Gender, sexuality, and religion are inextricably linked. When navigating queer expression and presentation, colonialism motivates a great deal of anxiety. The evolution of Muslim queerness and gender expression has a dense history that is closely tied to modernity and westernization. Both Muslims and colonizing powers are emotionally influenced in both directions in ways that impact gender expression and affirmation (Najmabadi, 2005). Queer expression and gender ambiguity existed for centuries in Islamic history. A helpful way to examine this is through art and understandings of beauty. Through modernity, beauty becomes feminized and masculinity departs from being a beautiful feature of art (Najmabadi, 2005). Through this process, queer Muslims become inherently non-hegemonic and disrupt heteronormative patriarchy and colonialism (Muneeruddin, 2020). This is both powerful and exhausting work for queer Muslims to perform and challenge by merely existing. This acts on the global history of queer Muslims as they simultaneously absorb and resist the boundaries that modernity attempts to constrain queerness within (Carbajal, 2019). We must understand that colonialism has real consequences on the bodies, communities, and internal wellbeing of LGBTQ+ Muslims.
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Date
2021-01-01
Student Status
Undergraduate
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Oral Paper Presentation
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Global Studies
Religion
Religion
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College of Arts and Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences
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Arts & Humanities