Read more  As we just celebrated the 10th anniversary of same-sex marriage last weekend, should we conclude that the queer movement is in the process of completing its normalization process, perhaps too much so if we are to believe those who see it as the emergence of a new moral order? However, there seems to be a paradox here if we return to the primary meaning of the word queer, which in English means bizarre, strange, and therefore seems to be associated historically, politically, and socially with subversion, the margins, a certain radicalism, and the refusal of norms. The news is also the cancellation of Bilal Hassani's concert a few days ago, proof that some people still see queer culture as a threat to the social order.
So how do queer and norms relate to each other? Is there, and more precisely, is there a need for queer normativity, in what sense and why?
Hopes for LiberationIn her work, Cornelia Möser is interested in the various notions of sexuality, and the "hopes for liberation" with which they have been associated. Thus, the 1960s were marked by the criticism of the sexual repression exercised by bourgeois capitalism: it was then a question of "enjoying without hindrance" to bring down this system of domination. An important debate also took place within feminism, with the hope that "lesbians could bring down the patriarchy". But this hypothesis was called into question during the sex wars: sexuality is not only "a tool used by men to exploit and oppress women". It can also "be a source of resistance, of enjoyment". In fact, "demanding pleasure for women could also be a feminist issue".
The impasse of anti-normativityHow can queer thought and feminism be articulated around the question of norms? Pierre Niedergang notes that one of the difficulties of the "anti-normative" point of view, which consists of thinking of queer as "pure sexual freedom" devoid of any norm, is its frontal opposition to the feminist approach. "The diversity of feminist struggles attempts on the contrary to modify, to invent new norms of sexuality, which allow us to think of a sexuality that is less violent towards women", but also to create "new erotic imaginaries", and to "transform the way in which we think about the body". On the contrary, "whoever says that we are breaking away from all norms of sexuality actually means doing violence to certain parts of the population, in this case, today, women and children".
The show can be listened to in its entirety by clicking on the top of the page.
To talk about itCornelia Möser: doctor in gender studies, qualified to direct research in philosophy and research fellow at the CNRS at the CRESPPA laboratory, gender, work, mobility team in Paris and at the Marc Bloch Center in Berlin.
She has published in particular:
Sexual Liberations. A History of Feminist and Queer Thoughts on Sexuality, La Découverte, coll. “Sciences humaines”, June 2022. With, Without or Against. Queer/Feminist Critiques of the State, Paris: Éditions iXe, “Racine de iXe”, November 2020. Pierre Niedergang, PhD student in philosophy at the University of Paris Nanterre, within the Institute of Philosophical Research. He is writing, under the supervision of Thierry Hoquet, a thesis entitled “Sexual Desire and Power. Normalization, Normativity, Real”.
He has published in particular:
Towards queer normativity, blast, 2023. Sound references: Archive of the drag queen Paloma, in the newspaper "6/9 week-end de France inter, August 2022 Archive of the speech of Christiane Taubira to the National Assembly, former Keeper of the Seals and Minister of Justice, February 12, 2013 Excerpt from the film 120 battements par minute, directed by Robin Campillo, 2017 Excerpt from an interview with Guillaume Dustan in the show "Tout le monde en parle", France 2, 2001 Archive: "Michel Foucault: History of sexuality, The will to know", show "Un après-midi de France Culture", January 11, 1977 Excerpt from an interview with Bilal Hassani, show "C à vous", France 5, April 2023 End of show song "Let's have a kiki" by the Scissor Sisters The Why of the how: PhilosophyAll the chronicles by Frédéric Worms can be listened to here. 

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