“Born This Way”: Queer Vernacular and the Politics of Origins

Abstract

This essay critically examines debates about the supposed inborn nature of sexual orientation. Although popular discourses suggest that sexual orientation is an immutable characteristic, several scholars and activists have argued there is danger in postulating same-sex desire is innate. This analysis looks to another feature of the controversy, arguing that when queers themselves utilize “born this way” rhetoric, they frequently do so in surprising ways that rest outside dichotomist forms of reasoning. Exploring posts on the “Born This Way” blog, this essay argues that vernacular appropriations of the phrase are more fluid among LGBT publics than often imagined, allowing for a rethinking of the epistemology of the closet.

Keywords:

• Queer
• LGBT
• Vernacular
• “Born This Way”

Notes

[1] The word “homosexual” never appears in the mother's letter, but is the phrase used by Freud in his reply.

[2] Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy argues that Freud contradicted himself on issues related to same-sex desire. He notes that Freud once advocated transporting homosexuals overseas as a “solution” to their presence. See Sex the Measure of All Things: A Life of Alfred C. Kinsey (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 159.

[3] This is not to discount the movement of pyschotherapists who wrongly appropriated Freud's ideas as pathological. Legal victories often gave way to draconian measures, such as being locked away in asylums. See David Halperin, Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 33.

[4] Jennifer Terry, An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 416, n. 65.

[5] See Born This Way Blog, http://borngaybornthisway.blogspot.com

[6] Suzanna Walters, “Born This Way?” The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 5, 2011, http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/born-this-way/37016; Lisa Wade, “Are We Born Gay? And If We Were, How Would We Know?,” Sociological Images, February 21, 2011, http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/02/21/are-we-born-gay-and-if-we-were-how-would-we-know/

[7] Judith Butler, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination,” in Inside Out: Lesbian Theories/Gay Theories, ed. Diana Fuss (New York: Routledge, 1981), 13–31.

[8] Butler, “Imitation,” 19.

[9] Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).

[10] Fredrick Corey and Thomas Nakayama remind us that new media “have changed how gay culture has chosen to cross the lines between public and private” and, as such, “a new epistemology of the closet” is necessitated. See “deathTEXT,” Western Journal of Communication 76 (2012): 19.

[11] Jeffrey Jones, “Most Americans See Gay, Lesbian Orientation as Birth Factor,” May 16, 2013, http://www.gallup.com/poll/162569/americans-gay-lesbian-orientation-birth-factor.aspx

[12] Robert Brookey, The Rhetoric and Power of the Gay Gene (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002), 5–6.

[13] Mark Joseph Stern, “Born This Way?” Slate, June 28, 2013, http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/06/biological_basis_for_homosexuality_the_fraternal_birth_order_explanation.html

[14] Walters, “Born This Way?”

[15] “No One is Born Gay (or Straight). Here are Five Reasons Why,” March 15, 2013, http://socialinqueery.com/2013/03/18/no-one-is-born-gay-or-straight-here-are-5-reasons-why/

[16] Kent A. Ono and John M. Sloop, “The Critique of Vernacular Discourse,” Communication Monographs 62 (1995): 22.

[17] Michelle Holling and Bernadette Calafell, “Tracing the Emergence of Latin@ Vernaculars in Studies of Latin@ Communication,” in Latina/O Discourse in Vernacular Spaces: Somos De Una Voz?, ed. Michelle A. Holling and Bernadette A. Calafell (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011), 18.

[18] Jiyeon Kang, “Coming to Terms with ‘Unreasonable’ Global Power: The 2002 South Korean Candlelight Vigils,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 6 (2009): 171–192.

[19] Robert Glenn Howard, “The Vernacular Web of Participatory Media,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 25 (2008): 490–513.

[20] Isaac West, Michaela Frischherz, Allison Panther, and Richard Brophy, “Queer Worldmaking in the It Gets Better Campaign,” QED 0.1 (2013): 49–85.

[21] Wade, “Are We Born Gay?”

[22] Dustin Goltz, “It Gets Better: Queer Futures, Critical Frustrations, and Radical Potentials,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 30 (2013): 137.

[23] Users are not required to follow the prompts, but several do. Prompts include, What pop culture type of things excited you then? and Any feelings you have about this picture now, as an adult?

[24] David Halperin, How to be Gay (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012), 318.

[25] John M. Allison, “Narrative and Time: A Phenomenological Reconsideration,” Text and Performance Quarterly 14 (1994): 119.

[26] On the debate over social construction and essentialism, see Judith Butler, Undoing Gender (New York: Routledge, 2004), 57–74.

[27] David Seitz, “Interview with Lauren Berlant,” Society and Space: Environment and Planning D, March 22, 2013, http://societyandspace.com/2013/03/22/interview-with-lauren-berlant/

[28] In coding the photos, one of the questions posed was, “Do they look LGBTQ?” I offered a very broad interpretation of what that might mean to be as inclusive as possible. Typically my interpretations were guided by poses, facial expressions, dress, toys, and LGBT cultural artifacts, among others.

[29] Jamie Skerski, “Tomboy Chic: Re-Fashioning Gender Rebellion,” Journal of Lesbian Studies 15 (2011): 466–479.

[30] Charles E. Morris III and John M. Sloop, “What These Lips Have Kissed: Refiguring the Politics of Queer Public Kissing,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 3 (2006): 1–26.

[31] Isaac West, “Debbie Mayne's Trans/scripts: Performative Repertoires in Law and Everyday Life,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 5 (2008): 245–63.

[32] John Lynch, “Articulating Scientific Practice: Understanding Dean Hamer's ‘Gay Gene’ Study as Overlapping Material, Social and Rhetorical Registers,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 95 (2009): 449.

[33] CEO Richard Hayne pulled a line of t-shirts supporting same-sex marriage in 2008. Sharon Clott, “Urban Outfitters Yanks Same-Sex Marriage T-shirt From Shelves,” New York Magazine, December 8, 2008, http://nymag.com/thecut/2008/12/urban_outfitters_yanks_same-se.html

[34] Marlon Riggs, Tongues Untied: Black Men Loving Black Men (San Francisco: California Newsreel, 1989).