What is Domestigay? And how do I use it?
Be Domestigay Proud!
Good question. Given my love for language, let’s begin with a definition and usage lesson.
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Do·mes·ti·gay /noun/ 1. A domestic homosexual 2. The intersections among queer sexualities, domesticity, and activism 3. An attempt to confront and combat heterosexism through domestic production. 4. A movement in the domestic arts and queer community that attempts to interrogate heterosexist assumptions that continue to make homosexuality monstrous to both heterosexual and homosexual identities.
Do·mes·ti·gay·tic /adjective/ 1. Characterized as exhibiting qualities that directly challenge heterosexism through the domestic arts (i.e., embroidery, cross stitch, baking, knitting, etc.). 2. Of or pertaining to the queer household.
Do·mes·ti·gay·te / verb / -gay·ted, -gay·ting 1. To engage in subversive and queered domesticity. 2. To challenge heterosexist thinking through the domestic arts (i.e., embroidery, cross stitch, baking, knitting, etc.) 3. To rewrite the heterosexual narrative of domesticity in a suspect or queered way. 4. To live a domestigaytic life.
Do·mes·ti·gay·tor /noun/ 1. A person who engages in actions indicative of domestigay philosophies. 2. A person who domestigaytes their life.
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I am starting this project because, despite recent successes in the queer community, I have realized that lgbtq rights have a long way to go and heterosexism is alive and well. This realization is something that I have been living with for quite awhile but I have not known how to go about actually engaging and creating these discourses in a meaningful way. Recently, however, I have been thinking about the crafting skills I have picked up in the last few months. I concluded that there is something quite powerful about the domestic arts and queer culture working together. Typically, I (and many other people I have talked to about this) have thought of queer culture as the antithesis to domestic arts. In reality, queer culture and domestic arts are the perfect places to work toward combating heterosexism in a constructive, subversive, and, I think, non-threatening way. (Seriously, when is the last time anyone went running out of the room screaming at an embroidered tea towel?) With this new understanding and vocabulary of domestigay I move forward to better understand both queer culture, domestic arts, and how these two areas can be most effectively used for activist and subversive projects. I ask you, loyal reader (If you read this far, you are quite loyal), to join me and became one of the few, the proud, the domestigays.
Domestigay 