Queering habitus: interrogating heteronormative dispositions that reproduce inequalities towards sexual minorities

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper engages Bourdieu’s theories of social and cultural reproduction, namely that of habitus, symbolic power, and symbolic violence, with the work of queer theorists, to interrogate the theory and practice of heteronormativity. The paper centrally argues that issues of inequalities experienced by sexual minorities are rooted on a received discourse that is normative in nature, and that, if unexamined, will continue to reproduce them. It also argues that negative dispositions towards sexual difference are not innate to human nature but ‘learned’ via early socialisation. Thus, to advance social justice, disrupting heteronormativity is the right thing to do, and initial teacher education is in a privileged position to help teachers and students with processes of learning and unlearning, necessary for a critical interrogation of received gender/sexuality norms. The first section contextualises habitus against critical interpretations of gender and sexuality. The second section deals with the power of discourse and the symbolic violence exercised by it. The third section explores the role of teacher education to disrupt heteronormativity. The conclusion brings together key conceptualisations to argue that tackling issues of inequality and injustice towards sexual minorities requires a queering of habitus, an acceptance of sexual diversity as natural rather than deviant.