DISIDENTIFICATIONS:
QUEERS OF COLOR AND THE
PERFORMANCE OF POLITICS
By: Ronnie Benion
Matt Gracia
JOSÉ ESTEBAN MUÑOZ
BIO
• Born in Havanna, Cuba on January 1, 1967
• Studied at Sarah Lawrence College
• Received doctorate in Literature at Duke University under the
tutelage of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
• Currently works in the fields of Performance Studies, Visual
Culture, Queer Theory, Cultural Studies, & Critical Studies
MUNOZ WORKS
Works:
• Disidentifications: Queers of Color and
the Performance of Politics (1999)
• Cruising Utopia: the Then and There of
Queer Futurity (2009)
Works Edited:
• Pop Out: Queer Warhol (1996) with
Jennifer Doyle & Jonathan Flatley
• Everynight Life: Culture and Dance in
Latin/o America (1997) with Celeste
Fraser Delgado
MUNOZ THEORY:
IDENTIFICATION AND
COUNTERIDENTIFICATION
• Identification: Associating with a model presented by society of
how one should act.
• Counter-identification: Rejecting the model presented by society
of how one should act.
DISIDENTIFICATION
• Both associating and rejecting the model presented at the same
time.
“Identifying with an object, person,
lifestyle, history, political ideology,
religious orientation, and so on, means to
also simultaneously and partially
counteridentifying, as well as only
partially identifying with different aspects
of the social and psychic worlds.” – Eve
Kosofsky Sedgwick
SEPARATION OF SEX AND RACE
Sexuality
Race
Lesbian : White
Asian : Straight
Asian Lesbian
STEREOTYPES
Stereotypes are often times the models in
which people choosing identity look to follow.
PERFORMANCE
Disidentification = Performance
As people with multiple
identities, we are always
performing. We just pick and
choose which aspect we
perform at a given moment.
“I found myself telling my
friends beforehand that I
was off to Yale to be a
lesbian…” – Judith Butler
DESIRE
• Desperately wanting what you can’t have/ what you are not.
“I was immersed in
vanilla. I savored
the single flavor,
one deliberately
not my own.” –
Marlon Biggs in
Tongues Untied
POP CULTURE VS. POLITICS
• Artists usually hide their
political opinions
because of the fear of
losing their job.
• Lady Gaga is using her
celebrity status to take a
political stance.
CONNECTION TO LORDE
“I was gay and Black. The latter
fact was irrevocable: armor,
mantle, and wall. Often, when I
had the bad taste to bring that fact
up in a conversation with other
gay-girls who were not black, I
would get the feeling I broke
some sacred bond of gayness, a
bond which I always knew was
not sufficient for me.” – Audre
Lorde
CONNECTION TO LORDE
“In a paradoxical sense, once I
accepted my position as different
from the larger society as well as
from any single sub-society – Black
or gay – I felt I didn’t have to try so
hard. To be accepted.” – Audre
Lorde
QUESTIONS?