Number 18
Queer Corazón: Theorizing Love, Sex, and the Body
Recontextualizing Insubordination: Chicana Lesbian and Queer Feminist Theorizations
If we understand the notion of insubordination as an act of disobedience that challenges authority, Chicana feminist epistemologies tracing lesbian desire and the queer body must be considered as the most critical paradigms of conceptual rebelliousness. The notion of insubordination, as I intend to theorize in this essay, not only defies the “Anglo-American” monolith signifier, but also represents the possibilities of cultural heterogeneity embedded in the struggles against the tyranny of hegemony and heteronormativity. As demonstrated in the much-acclaimed theories of Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherríe Moraga and the digital art of Alma López, the insubordinate body must convey an urgent sensibility of rebellion to dismantle the structures that make them feel invisible and powerless. While insubordination and its related signifiers — oppositional knowledge and resistance— are not necessarily new markers in theorizing Chicana sexuality and feminist epistemologies, the concepts are fundamentally essential to revisit and unpack the voices/subjectivities articulating the urgency to “decolonize” from repressive systems of domination.
Initial page
103
End page
126