King Andrew, Hall Matthew
Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom.
Front Sociol. 2023 Sep 29;8:1228993. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2023.1228993. eCollection 2023.
Queer Theory is a radically deconstructionist perspective within the humanities and social sciences. Since its initial emergence in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the field of sexualities studies, Queer Theory has increasingly been used to challenges normative notions of self, identity, temporality and the nature of being, more broadly. Whilst Queer Theory has been utilized, to some extent, in gerontology and aging studies, this article makes an original contribution to this endeavor, assessing the potentiality and problems with queer(y)ing three aspects of aging: chronology; cognition; and frailty and vulnerability. To achieve this, the article draws on ideas from some key Queer theorical writers, existing studies of queer aging and illustrates theoretical points with qualitative data collected from two LGBTQ+ projects to illustrate. The article also considers problems with Queer Theory in challenging normativities associated with aging. It is concluded that despite problems, Queer Theory remains an important and valuable theoretical approach for disturbing and challenging many of the norms and understandings that shape and constrain older LGBTQ+ people's lives, in particular, and therefore have importance for how we think and understand aging and later life sociologically.
酷儿理论是人文社会科学中一种激进的解构主义视角。自20世纪80年代末90年代初在性取向研究领域首次出现以来，酷儿理论越来越多地被用于更广泛地挑战关于自我、身份、时间性和存在本质的规范性观念。虽然酷儿理论在老年学和衰老研究中已在一定程度上得到运用，但本文对此做出了原创性贡献，评估了对衰老的三个方面进行酷儿化的潜力和问题：年表；认知；以及虚弱和脆弱性。为实现这一目标，本文借鉴了一些关键酷儿理论作家的观点、现有的酷儿衰老研究，并通过从两个 LGBTQ+ 项目收集的定性数据来说明理论要点。本文还考虑了酷儿理论在挑战与衰老相关的规范性方面存在的问题。结论是，尽管存在问题，但酷儿理论仍然是一种重要且有价值的理论方法，尤其对于扰乱和挑战许多塑造和限制老年 LGBTQ+ 人群生活的规范和理解具有重要意义，因此对于我们如何从社会学角度思考和理解衰老及晚年生活也很重要。
