Queer Theory in the Writing Center
In the world of academia, along with the world in general, there has been an existing “binary” that forces us to live in a black or white world. This can be relevant to people’s identities, especially when there’s a “majority” and “minority”. This kind of thinking is harmful to learning environments because it encourages people with identities such as white, straight, cisgender, and male to feel more empowered in their lives than those who don’t identify in that way. People who are not white and people who are queer or gender non-conforming often struggle to feel included in social circles and the world of academia. Every person deserves the opportunity to be educated, but negative stereotypes and microaggressions based on preconceived ideas of identity can harm a student who does not fit the typical idea of an intellectual (again, the “majority”). In the Writing Center, however, the fact that it is a peer tutoring session is just one of the ways that identity is not a barrier to learning, but an important factor of the learning process. The Writing Center’s goal is to provide an inclusive environment for everybody, just like the rest of the school should be, but sometimes fails to do.
There can be no talk of inclusivity of LGBTQ+ individuals in the world of academia without the discussion of Queer Theory. Queer Theory is a learning theory that is especially important in the world of education because it encourages people to view things from a different perspective and subvert normal and traditional thinking in general. It’s especially important in a college class because college is where young adults develop their critical-thinking skills, and it’s extremely important to teach social issues in college to prepare students for the real world. LGBTQ+ people are generally left out of the world of academia. Especially in the fields of literature and history, the teaching method is generally “straight-washed”. When using Queer Theory, we can challenges these exclusively heterosexual ideals of learning, and subvert the binaries and typical power dynamics. The Writing Center definitely implements Queer Theory in its tutoring methods, and it’s especially helpful when students meet with peer tutors.
Some would ask why does identity matter when it comes to taking classes and writing papers? A student’s race, sexuality, or gender identity shouldn’t be a factor in the world of learning. However, this is far from true. It’s easy for people who belong to privileged groups to be blind to the barriers that some minority identities face when in the academic world. I remember several situations in high school when I had only come out of the closet as bisexual the summer before my sophomore year. While I am from the uber-religious southern state of Texas, this doesn’t excuse the way that I felt ostracized in my own high school. My very first year, I was challenged by a close friend of mine actually over the concept of a day known as “The National Day of Silence”, which was a yearly event put on by my school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. It’s a day that is meant to promote the Anti-Bullying movements. However, given that it was our GSA that started the tradition of the day, the campus’s religious-based club would spend the entire day resisting the day, handing out flyers with Bible quotes, and saying that being queer is a sin, so we should not support The National Day of Silence. Again, it was a day to promote kindness and resist bullying, but since it was promoted by the queer club, it became a day to be hated by religious clubs. It was events like this that made my high school feel like an unsafe environment, but then again, high schools do not typically have a Writing Center.
A worse event that I recall happening in high school was in my senior year. The National Day of Silence drama occured due to some ignorant kids, probably just taught to think that way by their parents. They were easy to ignore. This is why I say that an event in my senior year was worse. I was in a Spanish class in October of 2017. This was Homecoming season, so there were lots of people making huge Homecoming proposals all over the school. One of the most popular guys in our school, a friend of mine, asked his boyfriend to homecoming right in the center of campus. It was all over social media. Most people were very happy for him; except for my Spanish teacher, who took the proposal as an excuse to spread her homophobia. Something in particular I remember her saying was “at least they didn’t kiss – I would’ve thrown up.” At this point in my life, I was very out and proud of my sexuality, so this was enough for me to walk out of my class. I’m fortunate enough to have not had to deal with any of this since I’ve been to college, but I know some friends who have. Funny enough, I talked with a friend just this semester who had to transfer out of her Spanish class because her professor was being homophobic and transphobic. It’s so much worse when the discrimination is coming from teachers and professors. They’re supposed to make classrooms a safe place for students of all identities, but when the authoritative figure of a classroom makes it a toxic environment, not everybody can learn the same. As Nicholas Reich puts it in his article “Queering the Air: Increasing LGBTQ+ Inclusivity in the Writing Center”, it’s important for a student to feel welcomed in a classroom in order for them to learn. Specifically, “How can students produce an identity through writing if they cannot feel comfortable expressing that identity in an academic setting…?” (Reich pp.17) People are judged by their identity in nearly every place in their lives, particularly minorities, but they should not be judged in an academic setting. Fortunately, most colleges do have a writing center.
Typical classrooms have a very strong authoritative feeling, since there is one person in charge of everyone else, but Writing Center sessions feel so much more inclusive since it’s a one-on-one session between two “equals” – one with just a little more authority over the other. In addition, people tend to have an easier time when they’re around people “like them” – whether it’s gender, race, or age – so having an open discussion with a Writing Center tutor can feel much less intimidating than having to ask the professor of the class for help. While some of the faculty at the Writing Center at Hofstra University may be professors as well, but a professor in a tutoring session isn’t the same as a professor who’s leading a class, so I think that this point can still stand. If someone was in a situation where a professor was being microaggressive toward their community, the Writing Center tutors can make up for the lack of compassion that the student is supposed to receive from their professors, and get it from a sympathetic peer instead. That’s how the Writing Center is meant to be because of how “peerness” can imply “equality.” It’s not a lecture-filled space with only one correct way of doing things; it’s a place for intellectual discussion and togetherness. As pointed out in an article on Praxis by Andrew J Rihn and Jay D. Sloan, “in our writing centers, as advocates of diversity and liberatory education, as spaces open to any and all students, and as safe working environments for our tutors, we have a responsibility to attend to such matters with all the seriousness and devotion they deserve.” (pp.21) With so many ignorant people in the world, it is the job of a Writing Center and its tutors to have an open and liberating space for all identities.
I’m fortunately writing this piece at a time when each year brings more social and educational awareness for the struggles of having a minority identity can pose in the real world. Many years ago, there would not be such a wide selection of Writing Center scholarship that deals with queer theory in the academic world. A landmark piece of writing was Harry Denny’s “Queering the Writing Center.” He brings up many themes of queer theory, and aims to get people talking and thinking about awareness of how queer identities can be affected in a space like the Writing Center. Specifically, “In supporting writers, we never just sit side by side with them as purely writers; they come to us as an intricately woven tapestry, rich in the authenticity and texture of identities, but this cloth often requires something extra to be legitimized in the academy” (Denny 40) helps to reiterate the point that the Writing Center is a place for all identities and it’s the job of tutors to be a respectful, understanding peer as well as it’s their job to be helpful and informative about writing. No matter what you look like, who you love, or how you identify, the Writing Center is welcoming of everyone.
Works Cited
Denny, Harry. “Queering the Writing Center.” The Writing Center Journal. Volume 25, No. 2. 39-62. 2005.
Reich, Nicolas. “Queering the Air: Increasing LGBTQ+ Inclusivity in the Writing Center.” The Peer Review. Spring 2018. http://thepeerreview-iwca.org/issues/relationality-si/queering-the-air-increasing-lgbtq-inclusivity-in-the-writing-center/
Rihn, Andrew J., Sloan, Jay D. “‘RAINBOWS IN THE PAST WERE GAY’: LGBTQIA IN THE WC.” Praxis: A Writing Center Journal. http://www.praxisuwc.com/rihn-sloan-102?rq=queer%20theory
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