ABSTRACT
Queer Theory by definition is difficult to capture, but it is best understood as the theoretical discourse that upends our assumptions that serve to undergird oppressive structures of power, beginning with a focus on those assumptions that reinforce heteronormativity and harmful gender norms. Queer Theory seeks to uncover and undermine hidden agendas, assumptions, categories, traditions, and norms that support the status quo. Queer Theory is not only antinormative, but also looks to empower disenfranchised subjects by not only dismantling existing structures of power but creating new avenues of empowerment. Queer Theory looks at how a text “queers” established narratives, that is, how it upends established norms and challenges underlying hierarchies. Reading with Queer Theory does not mean imposing a queer reading onto the text, but asking what is queer about the text or what is it queering. This chapter reads Justin Whitley and Elsa Charretier’s The Unstoppable Wasp as a queer feminist critique of continuity as a convention of mainstream comics.
