Metamorphisis

Queerness is more than just a sexual identity.

It describes more than just a superficial attraction, an aesthetic choice, or a relationship to gender and love.

Queerness is a metamorphosis. Queerness is necessarily explorative. Queerness is a force of subversion, a process of interrogation. It is a constant coming into and out of. It demands that we scrutinize, manipulate, and distort the categories and definitions by which we sort ourselves. It opens doors to new opportunities of feeling and loving beyond the prescriptive modes of a heterosexist society.

Sarah Ahmed calls it “queer feelings.”

Queerness allows for transcending boundaries between our bodies, for blurring the edges between friends, family, and lovers.

Scholar of feminist and queer theory Sara Ahmed calls it “queer feelings.” Gender theorist Judith Butler understands it as a critique of identity itself. The powerful, queer women at the forefront of queer theory and queer activism articulate an entire world of queerness at the fringes of “normal.” They teach that queerness is only revolutionary as it remains in constant tension with the norms imposed on us. It is only transformative as it compels us to challenge and confront violence and injustice. It is only liberating when it empowers us to question, resist, and experiment.

Photographed by Ryan Wimsatt and Jessica Yeung