Queer Childhoods

Queer childhoods refer to a range of histories, images, and figures of the child and the experiences of real child bodies. Historically, queer is a term that stood for derisive slang for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ+) and other identifications of gender and sexual minorities but has since been reclaimed by some people as a more positive figuration identity of nonnormative gender and/or sexual expressions. Queer’s other definitional legacy is tied to terms such as unconventional, strange, or bizarre. Queer childhoods may encompass either (or both) of these relations to queerness, opening up the study to children who are gender and sexual nonsocially normative identities and expressions while at the same time gesturing to critical explorations into childhood more broadly and unconventional, curious, and ...