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Still in the Closet: Subject Headings for LGBTIQ Identities

K.R. Roberto April 28, 2010. Still in the Closet: Subject Headings for LGBTIQ Identities. Perspective in Quote Form. “[T]he power relations that characterize any historically embedded society are never as transparently clear as the names we give to them imply.” *

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Still in the Closet: Subject Headings for LGBTIQ Identities

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  1. K.R. Roberto April 28, 2010 Still in the Closet: Subject Headings for LGBTIQ Identities

  2. Perspective in Quote Form “[T]he power relations that characterize any historically embedded society are never as transparently clear as the names we give to them imply.” * *Gordon, Avery. Ghostly matters: haunting and the sociological imagination.(Minneapolis: University of MinnesotaPress, 1997)

  3. A mercifully brief history of subject heading critiques • Foskett, A.C. “Misogynists All: A Study in Critical Classification.” Library Resources and Technical Services 15:2 (1971): 117-121. • Berman, Sanford. Prejudices and antipathies: a tract on the LC subject heads concerning people (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1971)

  4. Obligatory SB reference “[...] the LC list can only “satisfy” parochial, jingoistic Europeans and North Americans, white-hued, at least nominally Christian (and preferably Protestant) in faith, comfortably situated in the middle- and higher-income brackets, largely domiciled in suburbia, fundamentally loyal to the Established Order, and heavily imbued with the transcendent, incomparable glory of Western civilization.”* *Berman, p. 3

  5. Earliest research Joan Marshall & Steve Wolf • Sex and the Single Cataloger: New Thoughts on Some Unthinkable Subjects (ALA Annual 1971, Dallas) Marshall, Joan K. “LC Labeling: An Indictment.” Wolf, Steve. “Sex and the Single Cataloger.”

  6. Queer: (mostly) not a subject heading • Early 20th century: in-group term • 1950s: Well-known slur • 1980s-present: • Resistance to assimilative “lesbian and gay” language • Constantly shifting and challenging concepts of sexuality & gender

  7. Queer LCSH • Gays • Cross-references: • Gay people • Gay persons • Homosexuals

  8. At least it’s better than Perverts • Sexual minorities • Cross-references: • GLBT/GLBTQ/LGB/LGBT/LGBTQ/Lesbigay people • Non-heterosexual people • Sexual dissidents

  9. But wait! • Queer theory • Broader term: Gender identity? • With no queers in LCSH, what does Queer theory study? • Only authorizes “easy” identities

  10. The last letter in the acronym • Transgender people • Narrower headings: • Female/Male impersonators • Transvestites • Transsexuals

  11. Drama Drag Female impersonators Scope note: Here are entered works on men who impersonate women, generally for purposes of entertainment or comic effect. Works on women who impersonate men, generally for purposes of entertainment or comic effect, are entered under Male impersonators. Works on persons, especially males, who assume the dress and manner of the opposite sex for psychological gratification are entered under Transvestites.

  12. Lip-sync for your life! • Drag and transgender overlap in real life, but not in LCSH • Artifice over intent • drag performance less important than “imitation” of gender

  13. You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) • Are all drag performances about “passing” for the gender being performed? • Just ask the Denver Cycle Sluts!

  14. But wait (again)! • Drag balls • Attended by Female (or Male) impersonators? Transvestites? • “[...] gay men or lesbians dressed in clothing characteristic of the opposite sex”

  15. From Gay to Same-sex • Library of Congress • Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate Policy and Standards Division • Summary of Decisions, Editorial Meeting Number 13 March 31, 2010 Subject headings > Other decisions Same-sex parents: The heading Gay parents already exists in LCSH, so the proposed UF Gay parents is in direct conflict with that heading. The meeting decided to change the existing heading Gay parents to Same-sex parents. The proposal was not approved.

  16. Parents--Case studies • Gay parents and same-sex parents aren’t the same thing: • Co-parenting arrangements between lesbians and gay men

  17. Wrapping up on a positive note • Examples of headings where LC gets it right: • Bears (Gay culture) • Gay men/Lesbians/Bisexuals--Relations with heterosexuals • Handkerchief codes • Internalized homophobia • Intersex people • Leather lifestyle • Lesbian vampires

  18. Taxonomies beyond LCSH • Archives in London and the M25 area • International Homo/Lesbian Informationcenter and Archives (IHLIA)

  19. Obligatory Judith Butler quote “Gender, understood as one way of culturally configuring a body, is open to a continual remaking, and that “anatomy” and “sex” are not without cultural framing.”

  20. Thank you!

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