Space, Silence and Identity in Select Queer Essays

The society portrays gender norms as the natural and enforces an uneven power hierarchy. The perceived unnaturalness of homosexual desires leads to the queer individual being subject to violence and ostracization. This paper explores queer voices being denied space under moralistic and medical guises. It also delves into the possible reasons for the exclusion of queer needs and demands from other marginalised spaces. This paper will critically analyse Nivedita Menon’s essay “Feminism and Compulsory Sexuality,” Arvind Narrain and Vinay Chandran’s “It’s not my job to tell you that it’s okay to be gay Medicalisation of Homosexuality: A Queer Critique,” and Chayanika Shah’s “The Roads that E/merged: Feminist Activism and Queer Understanding.” This paper will explore the strands of space, silence, and identity of queer individuals to analyse how queer voices get silenced within the larger framework of things. This study will examine the oppressions and oppositions that queer people endure due to their non-heteronormative identity through the medium of the select essays.

Keywords: Gender roles, Space, Silenced voices, Transgressive desires, LGBTQIA+.