Queerness and Queer Subjectivities in Home Economics: Navigating and Disrupting the Helping Professions in Higher Education

ABSTRACT

Home economics is a diverse helping field that includes the areas of child development and education, nutrition, cooking, and the dietetics profession. Historically, these fields have been the domain of heterosexual cisgender women, with research and discussions of queerness limited. In this article, using queer methodologies and a queer autobiographical writing approach, we explore our experiences as two queer individuals who teach in disciplines within home economics, with the intent of cultivating more space for queerness within the fields of early childhood education and dietetics. We created common themes of queer subjectivities and queer knowledges from our autobiographical writing. In the queer subjectivities theme, we analyze the regulation and surveillance of masculinities and queer subjectivities. In the queer knowledges theme, we explore issues of queer pedagogies and practices within teaching. Recommendations for creating queer potentialities that disrupt normative notions of care that silence queer subjectivities and knowledges within home economics are discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. One of us identifies as cisgender (he/him) and the other as nonbinary (they/them), but we both identify with some aspect of masculinity, either currently identifying as cisgender or having done so in the past, and we are both cisgender presenting. We use the term men at times in this article in reference to being cisgender presenting, meaning we outwardly read as cisgender queer men, even if our internal sense of gender is different. We do not both internally identify as cisgender, and we acknowledge that our relationships with gender are complex, fluid and shifting, and not always easy to describe through language.

2. While we use the term “feminized” here, we strive to not equate feminization with devaluation, which would reinforce femmephobia, or the systematic devaluation and regulation of femininity (Hoskin, 2017). While outside of the scope of this article, we use the term “feminized” here to illustrate how fields within home economics have been typically associated with femininity, while not specifically deeming femininity itself as negative or attaching femininity inherently to white cisgender women. Please see Hoskin (2017) for more on femmephobia and Davies and Hoskin (2021) for more on the connections between care and femininity.

3. Folx is derived from folks but is used as a gender-neutral term and is therefore considered more inclusive to many people who identify as trans, genderqueer, and gender-fluid. By using folx, we attempt to subvert gendered power relations within society.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adam W. J. Davies

Adam W. J. Davies (they/them) is an assistant professor in the Department of Family Relations & Applied Nutrition at the University of Guelph. Adam’s research interests are queer theory in education, early childhood education and care, critical disability studies, mad studies, and anti-oppressive approaches and pedagogies in education. Adam is an Ontario Certified Teacher and Registered Early Childhood Educator.

Phillip Joy

Phillip Joy (he/him) is an assistant professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in the Department of Applied Human Nutrition. Phillip is a registered dietitian with the Nova Scotia Dietetic Association (NSDA) with a focus on queer nutrition, body image, and health; community advocacy and social disruption; and pedagogy, curriculum, and training.