Inconsistent Normativity: Halsey’s Badlands and Queer Theory
Document Type
Panel Presentation
Start Date
20-4-2017 1:30 PM
End Date
20-4-2017 2:45 PM
Keywords
queer, normativity, theory, Halberstam
Biography
My name is Chelsea Maynard and I am a junior majoring in creative writing and minoring in women's studies. Within the studies of English, my interests are poetry, feminist theory, queer theory, and young adult literature. I look forward to continuing my education by studying either literature or composition and rhetoric in graduate school after completely my bachelor's degree in May 2018.
Major
Creative Writing
Advisor for this project
Dr. Kristen Lillvis
Abstract
This paper explicates the lyrics of songs from Halsey’s deluxe Badlands album through a queer theory lens to identify queer themes that oppose normative factors, as defined by theorist Judith Halberstam. These controversial themes display the instability of normativity by going against set norms and exposing their inconsistency. These themes include: opposition to the patriarchy, dissolve of social class, glorification of alcohol, legalization of marijuana, and homosexuality. Within the songs’ lyrics, these queer themes form the bases of situations where societal norms are opposed and changed, therefore portraying the inconsistency of normativity. Through this idea of inconsistent normativity, the paper then continues to question norms to the point of where they can be debated as inexistent.
Inconsistent Normativity: Halsey’s Badlands and Queer Theory
This paper explicates the lyrics of songs from Halsey’s deluxe Badlands album through a queer theory lens to identify queer themes that oppose normative factors, as defined by theorist Judith Halberstam. These controversial themes display the instability of normativity by going against set norms and exposing their inconsistency. These themes include: opposition to the patriarchy, dissolve of social class, glorification of alcohol, legalization of marijuana, and homosexuality. Within the songs’ lyrics, these queer themes form the bases of situations where societal norms are opposed and changed, therefore portraying the inconsistency of normativity. Through this idea of inconsistent normativity, the paper then continues to question norms to the point of where they can be debated as inexistent.
