Queering (also called queer reading[1]) is a technique used to challenge heteronormativity by analyzing places in a text that use heterosexuality or identity binaries.[2][3] Coming out of queer theory in the late 1980s through the 1990s,[4] queering is a method that can be applied to literature, film, and other media. Originally, the method of queering dealt more strictly with gender and sexuality, but quickly expanded to become more of an umbrella term for addressing identity as well as a range of systems of oppression and identity politics.[1][4] Even the term queer itself can be queered, because much of queer theory involves working to fight against normalization even in the field itself.[1][5] In the context of queer theory, "queering is something we do, rather than something we are (or are not)."[1]
An example of queering would be to reexamine the primary sources from the life of King Richard I of England, to search for evidence that he exhibited homosexual behavior or attitudes. Queering, as a tool of historical analysis, does not necessarily mean an attempt to determine if historical figure actually engaged in homosexual behaviors. It embraces a more fluid spectrum of gender attitudes which may have been entirely emotional, e.g., if celibate monks who wrote letters of intimate affection could be said to be exhibiting a form of romantic love, even if they never engaged in intimate physical behavior, or even consciously considered their behavior to be a parallel of romantic physical relationships.
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