It’s Not A Parade, It’s A March!: Subjectivities, Spectatorship, and Contested Spaces of the Toronto Dyke March by Allison H. F. Burgess A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto © by Allison H. F. Burgess (2011) It’s Not A Parade, It’s A March!: Subjectivities, Spectatorship, and Contested Spaces of the Toronto Dyke March Doctor of Philosophy Allison H. F. Burgess Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto 2011 Abstract In this thesis I address the following questions: (1) How do dykes take up space in public in contemporary cities? (2) How does the ‘marching dyke’ emerge as a subject and what kind of subject is it? (3) How, in turn, do marching dykes affect space? In order to examine these questions I focus on the Toronto Dyke March to ask how it emerged in this particular time and place. The answer to each of these questions is paradoxical. I argue that the Dyke March is a complex, complicated and contradictory site of politics, protest and identity. Investigating ‘marching dykes’ reveals how the subject of the Dyke March is imagined in multiple and conflicting ways. The Toronto Dyke March is an event which brings together thousands of queer women annually who march together in the streets of Toronto on the Saturday afternoon of Pride weekend. My research examines how the March emerged out of a history of activism and organizing and considers how the March has been made meaningful for queer women’s communities, identities, histories and spaces. My analysis draws together queer and feminist ii poststructuralism, cultural geography literature on sexuality and space, and the history of sexuality in Canada. I combine a Foucaultian genealogy with visual ethnography, interviews and archival research. I argue that the Dyke March is an event which is intentionally meaningful in its claims to particular spaces and subjectivities. This research draws connections across various bodies of scholarship and offers an interdisciplinary contribution to the literature, contributing to discussions of queer women’s visibility and representation. Although my analysis is focused on Toronto as a particular site, it offers insight into broader queer women’s activist organizing efforts and queer activism in Canada. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am incredibly grateful for the support and contributions made by many of the people in my life who have made this work possible. I am indebted to those people who have been committed to a history of queer activism, organizing and political engagement in Toronto, to all who have continued to insist on taking it to the streets every year, and for creating such a dynamic and exciting space in which to study and live. My deepest gratitude to the people who generously shared their stories and personal Dyke March archives with me. I have been fortunate to benefit from the incredible scholarship in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, a place full of critical inquiry and social and political engagement. My sincerest thanks to my thesis committee whose support has been invaluable. To Kari Dehli, my supervisor, for continuing to provide me with direction when I was not sure which way to turn. Your willing engagement, gentle guidance, and warm smile showed me a kind of wisdom that is rare. To Rinaldo Walcott, for always asking me the questions that stumped me the most, which continue to leave me pondering. To Doreen Fumia, for your genuine enthusiasm for this project from our first meeting and at every stage of the process along the way. To Emily Gilbert, my unofficial committee member, you have been such an incredible mentor to me at every stage of my academic career and for that I am deeply grateful. My thanks also to Sarah Brophy for your beautifully thoughtful and reflective engagement with and response to my work. I would also like to thank a number of people at OISE and UofT who have made a deep impression on my scholarship and academic engagement in ways they might never really know: Tara Goldstein, Sheryl Nestel, Sherene Razack, Jude Tate and Maureen Fitzgerald. My thanks also to Kristine Pearson, who was the first person to smile at me in the department, and who helped me with my many administrative crises. My thanks also to Gerald King for his assistance with the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. Further, I am grateful to the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada for providing funding at various stages of the project. I have had the unique opportunity to work amongst a small and close group of fellow graduate students throughout my doctoral studies: Amy Gullage, Kristin Smith and Marie Vander Kloet. This thesis is, in no small part, a reflection of their collective input, insight and engagement. Together, we have shared many meals, glasses of wine, miseries and celebrations, and I will always be grateful for the friendships that have emerged from their intellectualism. Amy Gullage, you have an uncanny ability to wade through pages of writing, or listen to me talk in circles at any hour of the day, and find the key that I’ve been missing. You always ask astute questions of my work, but also share with me the pleasure and quirkiness of daily life, and this has made so much of the academic process worthwhile. iv Kristin Smith, you have a gifted ability to find the kindest words, whether for praise or critique. With regularity, you remind me of the importance of political struggles and the heart of activist work, and for that I am grateful. Marie Vander Kloet, you have such a keen and critical eye. My thanks to you for using it to read my work, for sharing in the absurdity of the scholarly or otherwise, and for somehow knowing just when I need some extra company and a home cooked meal. I also want to express thanks to Maria Cappadocia for getting me through the writing process by helping me to swim through it. You helped to give all of us in the Hart House Masters Swimming class a sense of direction, focus and accomplishment, especially on the days when writing seemed like the least likely possibility in my day. My heartfelt thanks to all of the support from my friends and family, near and far. Thanks to Poppy and to the extended Burgess family for loving me and allowing me to grow to be who I am. Thanks also and especially to: Susan Ferguson and Josephine Tcheng, for all of the shared meals (and meal deliveries!), wine, conversation and committed consumption of queer popular culture. All of this has provided me with nourishment in every kind of way. Thank you Susan for being a constant source of motivation, especially in the final stages of the writing process, and for your close and thoughtful reading of parts of this work. Nazira Mawji and Saifu Mawji, for all of the meals, love and continued belief that I’d make it through. Yasene Mawji, for reminding me what eager and engaged intellectualism looks like. My parents, Linda Frank and Ken Burgess, for raising me to fight for what I believe in, and for always supporting me and loving me no matter what I do or how long it takes. My sister, Caitlin Burgess, for being my “person” when I have needed you most (and on many an occasion!). I love the three of you with all of my heart. And finally, thank you to Elysha Mawji, for always believing in me and the work that I do and reminding me, in your own way, why the struggle is always worth it. Despite the wide distances of land and sea that seem to find themselves between us, your love and support feel like home, no matter where we are. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi List of Appendices .......................................................................................................................... viii Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter Outline .................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1: Theoretical Tools and Perspectives .......................................................................... 11 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 11 1.2 The Emergence of Homosexuality as an Identity ......................................................... 11 1.3 Feminist Poststructuralism ............................................................................................ 23 1.3.1 Language and Discourse ................................................................................ 26 1.3.2 Performativity ................................................................................................ 28 1.3.3 Power ............................................................................................................. 30 1.3.4 Gender and the Subject