What Does it Mean to be Queer in the World of Urban Farming?

February 11th, 2010 by Meg Brown

What Does it Mean to be Queer in the World of Urban Farming?

In Your Backyard, On The Policy Front 1 Comment

Meg Brown's garden of resistance

This question has been on this queer lady’s mind since I heard about the Queer Farmer Film Project, which is coming to Seattle on February 15.

Does queer farming look the same? Act the same? Is it done for the same reasons? While I have similar questions for more rural queer farms/farming, my curiosity is primarily urban based.

Defining Queer

Queer? What does that even mean you ask? Why not just say gay or lesbian or LGBT or LGBTQITS? Round up 100 queers and you’d get (roughly) 217 different reasons. So, for a decent explanation, I made a visit to our dear friend wikipedia:

In contemporary usage, some use queer as an inclusive, unifying sociopolitical umbrella term for people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual,pansexual,transgender, transsexual, intersexual, genderqueer…

…queer has sociopolitical connotations, and is often preferred by those who are activists, by those who strongly reject traditional gender identities, by those who reject distinct sexual identities such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and straight, and by those who see themselves as oppressed by the heteronormativity of the larger culture.

For some queer-identified people, part of the point of the term ‘queer’ is that it simultaneously builds up and tears down boundaries of identity….For some people, the non-specificity of the term is liberating. Queerness becomes a way to simultaneously make a political move against heteronormativity while simultaneously refusing to engage in traditional essentialist identity politics.

Merriam-Webster defines queer as “differing in some odd way from what is usual or normal.“

Urban Dictionary has 39 definitions. One defines queer as “once a pejorative, now a reappropriated term used by those who are attempting to dismantle the gay/straight binary and replace it with the idea that human sexuality is less an ‘either/or’ thing and more a spectrum onto which people fall in many different places.”

Jennifer Self summed queer up as “a term full of potential. It is such a contested term folks can’t really co-opt it, own it or solidly define it. And it is constantly in motion and hard to pin down, which is part of its beauty.“

There you have it. Queer 101. With me so far? Good. Then let’s proceed shall we?

Identity, Oppression & Privilege (oh my!)

My interest in social justice and liberation politics stem from both my privileged and oppressed statuses. To name a few: I was raised middle class. I’m white. Able-bodied. College-educated. Employed. Well-traveled. A home-owner. And, I’m a woman. I’m non-Christian. And I’m queer.

Queerness is but one marginalized identity– people often hold multiple oppressed identities that intersect. Racism, classism and sexism run rampant. The intersection of multiple oppressions has been written about by lots & lots of super smart people.

In “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer?” Cathy Cohen (1997) expands our understanding of queerness: ”At the intersection of oppression and resistance lies the radical potential of queerness to challenge and bring together all those deemed marginal and all those committed to liberatory politics.“

Queerness is my politic.

Queering the Urban Farm

The scene: A person in their yard likely pruning tomatoes, picking at some weeds, sniffing rosemary or trellising some unruly beans. Perhaps picking strawberries with toddler.

At first glance you might just see a person growing a bit of food.

Look a bit deeper and you’ll see active engagement in building community/family around food and food issues.

However, what is at the core of my gardening is my queerness. My queer politic around urban farming is one of resistance. By tearing out my lawn and replacing it with space for food production, I am resisting. By purchasing non-GMO, non-Monsanto, heirloom seeds: I am resisting. By refusing to use chemicals, I am resisting. By sharing knowledge, seeds, tools and skills: I am resisting. By growing enough food to eat, preserve and share: I am resisting. By engaging in local food justice projects, I am resisting. Resisting the agro-industrial complex. Resisting systems that multiply oppress. So, while I grow, I also resist. See?

Grow and Resist.

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jess says:

July 7, 2010 at 2:51 pm

As a fellow queer urban farmer, I am also interested in these issues but I struggle to make connections when this stuff comes up in conversation. Is the garden an extension of my radicalization? Would my urban food production be less radical if my sexuality was different? I have had wonderful queer-friendly hetero allies who started amazing, inspirational community gardens producing food for schools, children, food banks, etc. Is that more radical than my own, queer, self-sufficiency efforts in my yard? How is my small-scale production different from my (hetero) neighbor’s similarly organic, heirloom, non-GMO edible landscape? The yards look the same when you walk or bike past them. I don’t (never would even consider) fly a rainbow flag in my microfarm.

I think, sometimes, of the luxurious free time of childless or childfree people, and how much more food I might grow if I weren’t protecting the plants from a teen in addition to slugs, squirrels and deer. But more and more in our modern queer landscape, being childless or childfree is not a function of queerness, but of choice. I am in support of this evolution, obviously, but it does complicate the pictures of our stereotypical lifestyles.

Since sexuality and orientation are not necessarily tied to any specific lifestyle or set of choices (career, family, housing situation, etc), it is difficult for me to talk about queer urban farming as something that is momentous and exciting – although it feels like it should be, to me. If my sexuality and my farming are both extensions of my radicalization and political stance, are they related anywhere beyond the common hub of me? I can speak more easily about the radicalization of women farmers — since women produce much/most of the small scale agricultural energy in the world, but own the very smallest percentage of anything, or reflect on the pastoral image of a hardworking farmer’s wife, and how different her life is from mine even though we are, technically, both farmers’ wives although I am in the (fortunate, i think?) position of also HAVING a farmer’s wife. anyway, thanks for the thoughtful blog post!