CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Popovic, Ana S |
|---|---|
| Title | Post-Gay Faces, Post-Gay Spaces: Exploring the Politics of Inclusion of Non-Heterosexual Women in the Alternative Social Scene in Belgrade |
| Summary | In this paper I examine the emerging phenomenon of alternative “gay-friendly“ social scene in Belgrade (Serbia) by focusing on the experiences of non-heterosexual women that visit the alternative gay-friendly clubs and late-night bars in Belgrade. The conclusions drawn are based on etnographic research, which consisted of participant observation and fifteen interviews with non-heterosexual women who regularly or occasionally attend the alternative social scene and openly express their homoerotic desire in it. I interpret the alternative gay-friendly social scene as a post-gay space, which constitutes a place of belonging for “post-gay” women. The term post-gay, in the sense I am using it, refers to the space in which sexual orientation of its inhabitants ceases to function as a relevant marker of the space, and at the same time, it is a reference to non-heterosexual women who repudiate sexual orientation as a marker of their identity or reject sexual categorization altogether. I argue that post-gay identity and post-gay spaces in the context of Belgrade are bounded by middle-class belonging and embedded in the homonormative discourse of respectability. Therefore, they stand in opposition to the queer space of LGBT social scene in Belgrade, that welcomes people of different classes and is situated beyond the normalizing regimes. Nevertheless, I argue that the post-gay spaces in Belgrade at the same time allow for queer transgressions of homonormativity, by the virtue of accepting the rupturing of gender norms and practices of monogamous relationships. |
| Supervisor | Christine Klapeer |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/popovic_ana.pdf |
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