Abstract
Matthew Shepard's murder in October 1998 provides an opportunity to examine and reconsider identity politics as they play out around Matthew's body. After a sustained critique of identity politics, the author proposes, in their stead, a politics of performance, which offers a constructive alternative to current political agendas by allowing the simultaneous preservation and erasure of difference.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Birch, E. (1998). Apparent hate crime against gay student in Wyoming highlights the need for Congress to pass the hate crimes prevention act. Human Rights Campaign press release (1998, October 9). Retrieved October 11, 1998 from the World Wide Web: http://www.hrc.org/.
Bornstein, K. (1994). Gender outlaw: On men, women, and the rest of us. New York: Routledge.
Boulden, W. (1998). Remarks of Walter Boulden at national Matthew Shepard vigil. (1998, October 14). Retrieved October 11, 1998 from the World Wide Web: http://www.wiredstrategies.com/shepardx.html.
Brown, W. (1995). States of injury: Power and freedom in late modernity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Butler, J. (1995). Melancholy gender/refused identification. In M. Berger, B. Wallis & S. Watson (eds.). Constructing masculinity (pp 21–36). New York: Routledge.
—. (1997). Excitable speech: A politics of the performative. New York: Routledge.
Chase, T. & Phillips, R. (1988). When rabbit howls: The troops for Truddi Chase (2nd ed.). New York: Jove.
Dohrn, B. (1998). Tragic death of gay Wyoming student begs for end to hatemongering: Oldest and largest gay legal group says anti-gay discrimination fuels violence. Lambda Legal Defence and Education Fund press release (1998, October 12). Retrieved October 15, 1998 from the World Wide Web: http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/pages/documents/record?record = 297
Egerton, B. (1998). Why now? Other gays have been victims of brutal attacks, but the slaying of a Wyoming student has caused a national outcry. (October 17). Dallas Morning News, p. A1.
Garry, J. M. (1998). GLAAD and NGLTF profoundly saddened by the death of Matthew Shepard. Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation press release (1998, October 12). Retrieved October 15, 1998 from the World Wide Web: http://www.glaad.org/glaad/press/981012.html
Martin, E. (1994). Flexible bodies: The role of immunity in American culture from the days of polio to the age of AIDS. Boston, MA: Beacon.
Nietzsche, F. (1956). The genealogy of morals (F. Golffing, Trans.). New York: Doubleday. (Original work published 1887).
Phelan, P. (1993). Unmarked: The politics of performance. New York: Routledge.
Schechner, R. (1994). Performance theory (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Solomon, R. C. (1994). One hundred years of ressentiment: Nietzsche's Genealogy of morals. In R. Schacht (ed.). Nietzsche, genealogy, morality: Essays on Nietzsche's Genealogy of morals. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Normand, S. The Parable of Matthew: Identity Politics, Politics of Desire, and the Politics of Performance. International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies 4, 315–326 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023201529833
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023201529833