Queered Outrage: Reclaiming Anger amid Facile Calls for Campus Civility

By Cathryn Bailey and Susan K. Freeman

Abstract:

Campus calls for “civility” tend to limit access to legitimate anger expression, especially for those on the margins of power. By exploring how socially permissible anger is racialized and gendered, and highlighting anger-infused queer activism of Stonewall and ACT UP, we identify anger as an important tool for interrogating facile notions of civil discourse, with significant implications for campus life. Anger from the margins is a necessary corrective to power abuses, and its full expression is essential to securing academic freedom. This reclamation of a supposedly “negative” emotion can motivate truth-telling and institutional change. Although campus communities prefer to embrace optimistic speech—think happy Pride rainbows and uplifting calls for diversity and unity—a truly progressive campus environment requires richer appreciation of and engagement with speech containing sorrow, ambivalence, anger, and darkness.

Download "Queered Outrage: Reclaiming Anger amid Facile Calls for Campus Civility" or read it below.

Comments

I am so appreciative of the way these authors "normalized" the use of anger -legitimate anger, I should say- in university discourse. Excellent article. Very tight reasoning.
Hard to believe that "civility" is being used to extinguish legitimate and very serious argumentation.

Anger is the opposite of thankfulness.  It is impossible for an angry person to be thankful, and it is impossible for a thankful person to be angry.
Instead of expressing anger, let's be thankful.  Anger only hurts people, and it does not force anyone to tell the truth.  Anger forces people to agree with whatever the angry person says out of fear.

Add new comment

We welcome your comments. See our commenting policy.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.