Queercore: Queer Punk Media Subculture

by Curran Nault

Queercore is a queer and punk transmedia movement that was instigated in 1980s Toronto via the pages of the underground fanzine ("zine") J.D.s. Authored by G.B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce, J.D.s. declared "civil war" on the punk and gay and lesbian mainstreams, consolidating a subculture of likeminded filmmakers, zinesters, musicans and performers situated in pointed opposition to the homophobia of mainline punk and the lifeless sexual politics and exclusionary tendencies of dominant gay and lesbian society. More than thirty years later, queercore and its troublemaking productions remain under the radar, but still culturally and politically resonant.



This book brings renewed attention to queercore, exploring the homology between queer theory/practice and punk theory/practice at the heart of queercore mediamaking. Through analysis of key queercore texts, this book also elucidates the tropes central to queercore's subcultural distinction: unashamed sexual representation, confrontational politics and "shocking" embodiments, including those related to size, ability and gender variance. An exploration of a specific transmedia subculture grounded in archival research, ethnographic interviews, theoretical argumentation and close analysis, ultimately, Queercore proffers a provocative, and tangible, new answer to the long-debated question, "What does it mean to be queer?"

Genres: Queer, Music, LGBT, Nonfiction, History, Queer Studies

180 pages, Hardcover

Published August 16, 2017

Reviews

[Ashton · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was pretty good!! i’m naturally skeptical about academic analysis of queercore, but Nault’s acknowledgement (and perhaps shared feeling) of that fear made this a lot more enjoyable for me. while i don’t think i really learned a /lot/ due to my previous knowledge and love of queercore, there were a few things new to me, and i really appreciated Nault’s explicit inclusion of fat, disability, and race politics, as well as discussion of transness as influential to even early queercore. my main critique is that this book doesn’t feel like it has a set purpose. at the end, Nault writes that he wants it to give readers what queercore artists gave to him. an academia-entrenched book doesn’t feel like the right medium for that to me. the book discusses history and places in a relatively accessible way, but also brings in Foucault, Freud, and complex ideas about sex and assimilation that don’t seem super accessible in the way that, imo, queercore should be. as someone already familiar with queer academia, i did feel like i was the right audience for this, but it didn’t do for me what queercore did for Nault — bc /queercore/ did for me what queercore did for him!

but also, because of the serious lack of scholarship around queercore, this was very much appreciated by me personally

[kory. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“my wish is that this book will do for readers—especially younger lgbtq+ readers—what g. b. jones, bruce labruce and the queercore artists that came after them did for me. i hope that it introduces them to wild perspectives and visions. i hope that it encourages them to seek out new artifacts and to listen to voices beyond the status quo. i hope that it intoxicates them with the possibilities of refusal and rebellion. i hope that is makes them feel less alone. i hope that it inspires them to make some queer(core) mischief of their own.”

[Angelika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schon interessant zu lesen, durchaus auch selbstkritisch, auch nit kritischen Blick auf Queercore und schwierige Phänomene innerhalb der Szene. Aber irgendwie fehlen mir hier die wirklich tiefen Analysen und Vergleiche. Zum Einstieg hat mir tatsächlich die Einleitung gereicht.

[Bill Hsu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice to see the photos and stories. But I'm obviously not the intended audience for the extended academic analyses.

[Mills College Library]

306.10971 N298 2018