Hypervisibility in Australian punk scenes: Queer experiences of spatial logics of gender and sexuality. (1st October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sharp, Megan
• Is Part Of: Punk & post-punk. Volume 8:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 363
• Page End: 378
• Publication Date: 2019-10-01
• Subjects: Punk rock music -- Periodicals; Punk rock music -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Punk rock musicians -- Periodicals; Punk culture -- Periodicals; 306.48426
• DOI: 10.1386/punk_00004_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2044-1983

Abstract

In this article, I draw on the knowledge and lived experience of queer people – some of whom also identify as trans, gender diverse and/or non-binary – who actively participate in Australian punk scenes. Using socio-geographical research of intersectionality, critical race theory and spatiality I find queer experiences of and in punk highlight a complication to claims of female and queer invisibility, one that takes into account spacial formations. Attending to queer, trans and gender-diverse people's experiences, hypervisibility presents a conceptual entanglement where genders, bodies and sexualities attract attention from a dominant, patriarchal group, rather than being rendered invisible by it. This hypervisibility appears steeped in unintelligibility where being visible but unknowable presents a range of issues such as standing out not only in physical punk spaces such as gigs, but on digital platforms and in everyday life. As such, this article builds on a feminist thesis of invisibility politics by aiming to elasticize knowledges of gender, resistance and subcultural participation among marginalized groups.