Prendre et trouver sa place : discours hétéronormatifs et pratiques hétérosexuelles dans un cruising bar de Montréal

In the 1980s and 1990s, lesbian and gay politics and queer theory problematized the concept of heteronormativity in order to denounce and call into question the normative system that privileges and rewards heterosexual identities and lifestyle. However, conceptualisations of heteronormativity have failed to destabilize heterosexuality as a norm. In this thesis, I argue that the concept of heteronormativity is insufficient to subvert the heterosexual system because it fails to acknowledge the complexity of heterosexual identities. Far from being uniform and homogenous, heterosexuality is organized as a hierarchical system. The regulation of heterosexuality is ensured by heterosexual masculine and feminine gender identities within which the acquisition of privilege and power depend on many variables and criteria. I argue that the regulatory effects of these discourses are constantly challenged in practice and that to overcome the limits of the concept of heteronormativity we have to investigate the practices and arrangements of heterosexual masculine and feminine gender identities. Moreover, we have to observe heterosexuality in 'place', specifically in places other than the home or workplace that do not reproduce the hegemonic heteronormative division between the public and private spheres. Because, if heteronormative discourses police spaces according to specific norms, heterosexuality is practised everywhere. To do so, I went to a heterosexual cruising bar in Montreal, Le Minuit, where the clientele is typically single (divorced or never married) and 39 years old. The discourse of the 'cruising bar' label is significant in two ways. First, it gives a striking representation of what is perceived and constructed at the founding moment of heterosexuality: the meeting of women and men. Second, the discourse of the cruising bar, because of the specific characteristics of its clientele, illustrates non hegemonic heterosexuality. In Quebec, the discourse surrounding the label 'cruising bar' brings to mind images of 'losing' heterosexual identities that are seen as inadequate and lacking. In this sense, the label 'cruising bar' is heteronormative since it also defines, by default, its opposite---'winning' identities that are privileged. In the face of contemptuous discourses that devalorize their personal experiences, the patrons of Le Minuit engage in a process of reconstruction. During the interviews, informants would incessantly go back and forth between the norms and their own experiences in an attempt to both conform to and detach themselves from heteronormative discourses. At the Minuit, informants, night after night, in becoming regulars, distance themselves from their negative perceptions about 'women in bars' and men in bars, perceptions they acquire long before going out. In order to understand heterosexuality and end its privileges we have to know how heteronormativity organises, produces and reproduces itself. Therefore, it is necessary to observe how heteronormativity organizes gender identities in everyday life. It is equally important to reveal that there are multiple perceptions and experiences of the arrangements that define heterosexual practices, which can simultaneously conform to and confront heteronormative discourses. To know heterosexuality, we must observe and listen to those who, though marginalized, are in fact at the heart of heterosexuality; those who through incessant efforts to achieve norms take part in their maintenance.

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