Norm-critical rationality: emotions and the institutional influence of queer resistance

AbstractNorm critique is a recent discourse and practice in Sweden that is associated with queer resistance. It is taken up as a mode of governance in several Swedish institutions and companies. At face value, norm critique allows queer resistance to have a direct impact on institutional sources of norms in society. However, this article argues that such a shift in queer resistance replaces the queer emotionally overt subject with a rationalist style of emoting. It also argues that norm critique (re)institutes a subject position that paradoxically sides with contemporary forms of power and its demands for emotional competence.