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Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others
In this groundbreaking work, Sara Ahmed demonstrates how queer studies can put phenomenology to productive use. Focusing on the “orientation” aspect of “sexual orientation” and the “orient” in “orientalism,” Ahmed examines what it means for bodies to be situated in space and time. Bodies take shape as they move through the world directing themselves toward or away from objects and others. Being “orientated” means feeling at home, knowing where one stands, or having certain objects within reach. Orientations affect what is proximate to the body or what can be reached. A queer phenomenology, Ahmed contends, reveals how social relations are arranged spatially, how queerness disrupts and reorders these relations by not following the accepted paths, and how a politics of disorientation puts other objects within reach, those that might, at first glance, seem awry.
Ahmed proposes that a queer phenomenology might investigate not only how the concept of orientation is informed by phenomenology but also the orientation of phenomenology itself. Thus she reflects on the significance of the objects that appear—and those that do not—as signs of orientation in classic phenomenological texts such as Husserl’s Ideas. In developing a queer model of orientations, she combines readings of phenomenological texts—by Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Fanon—with insights drawn from queer studies, feminist theory, critical race theory, Marxism, and psychoanalysis. Queer Phenomenology points queer theory in bold new directions.
Ahmed proposes that a queer phenomenology might investigate not only how the concept of orientation is informed by phenomenology but also the orientation of phenomenology itself. Thus she reflects on the significance of the objects that appear—and those that do not—as signs of orientation in classic phenomenological texts such as Husserl’s Ideas. In developing a queer model of orientations, she combines readings of phenomenological texts—by Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Fanon—with insights drawn from queer studies, feminist theory, critical race theory, Marxism, and psychoanalysis. Queer Phenomenology points queer theory in bold new directions.
223 pages, Paperback
First published December 4, 2006
375 people are currently reading
8009 people want to read
About the author
Sara Ahmed
51 books1,630 followersSara Ahmed is a British-Australian scholar whose area of study includes the intersection of feminist theory, lesbian feminism, queer theory, critical race theory and postcolonialism.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews
February 15, 2015
Philosophy! The foundation pit of all the sciences and all the arts and all the humanities, no? Philosophy! A praxis... of thinking about stuff more than usual, of following the trail of ideas, seeing where we can go with them… something like that? It's how I would describe Sara Ahmed's writing. An image for it might be going for a walk on a beach and examining the shells, turning them over, listening to them, seeing what colour they are on the inside. Except that sounds a bit floaty and whimsical, which this emphatically isn't, it's just that it's an investigation of the often overlooked, a hearing of the seldom heard.
For example, thinking about Husserl thinking about tables, Ahmed thinks about the labour involved in keeping the table and the space around it clear and available for Husserl to sit and think and write at, labour performed by others, presumably women. Ahmed asks: what's going on behind Husserl while he's thinking and writing at his writing table? She asks and suggests lots of other things too related to the way people are facing, what they are able, thereby, to notice, what effect spaces and objects and work have on bodies, how these effects depend on those bodies, whether they are read as bodies of colour, female bodies, queer bodies.
Thinking about orientations around things and toward things shows how things get missed, how barriers that stop some can be invisible to those they let pass. Racism isn't much of a problem these days, say my class of white students…
I was taught, as a student of philosophy, not to value the personal, but to admire the 'objective'. Yet, philosophers have spoken as if their own thoughts were universal. By investigating the personal, (queer) feminists of colour like Ahmed have rehabilitated the specificity of experiences, opening paths and windows onto nodes of commonality, meeting points, communal tables as well as places of tension and friction.
I'm sure I'll read this again and keep making connections, keep following paths I'd never noticed. One point of affinity I felt was with Elizabeth Grosz's essay 'Refiguring Lesbian Desire' in which she elaborates on the preposition that desire, rather than being a painful lack, is creative and productive. For Ahmed desire, specifically lesbian desire, certainly is that: it creates paths, reshapes the world. I love reading Ahmed, not just because I recognise and learn to recognise the world spoken differently to the way I have been trained to hear it, but because of this pathbrea/making world shifting potential she points to.
For example, thinking about Husserl thinking about tables, Ahmed thinks about the labour involved in keeping the table and the space around it clear and available for Husserl to sit and think and write at, labour performed by others, presumably women. Ahmed asks: what's going on behind Husserl while he's thinking and writing at his writing table? She asks and suggests lots of other things too related to the way people are facing, what they are able, thereby, to notice, what effect spaces and objects and work have on bodies, how these effects depend on those bodies, whether they are read as bodies of colour, female bodies, queer bodies.
Thinking about orientations around things and toward things shows how things get missed, how barriers that stop some can be invisible to those they let pass. Racism isn't much of a problem these days, say my class of white students…
I was taught, as a student of philosophy, not to value the personal, but to admire the 'objective'. Yet, philosophers have spoken as if their own thoughts were universal. By investigating the personal, (queer) feminists of colour like Ahmed have rehabilitated the specificity of experiences, opening paths and windows onto nodes of commonality, meeting points, communal tables as well as places of tension and friction.
I'm sure I'll read this again and keep making connections, keep following paths I'd never noticed. One point of affinity I felt was with Elizabeth Grosz's essay 'Refiguring Lesbian Desire' in which she elaborates on the preposition that desire, rather than being a painful lack, is creative and productive. For Ahmed desire, specifically lesbian desire, certainly is that: it creates paths, reshapes the world. I love reading Ahmed, not just because I recognise and learn to recognise the world spoken differently to the way I have been trained to hear it, but because of this pathbrea/making world shifting potential she points to.
June 11, 2011
It's confession time. I like to read books on theory, philosophy and semantics for fun. One of my recent fun reads (and taken off my lengthy wishlist) was Queer Phenomenology by Sara Ahmed. Since I read this book for fun over a three day weekend, this will be an informal post only and not anything meant to be construed as academic.
The cover image of Queer Phenomenology explains quite succinctly what the book is about. Phenomenology is the study of structures and space from first person point of view. It is related to other studies such as ontology and epistemology. So it's the why is this space the way it is and how does it affect me or more generally people in the space.
Sara Ahmed's four chapter book starts with a dining room scene with a table and chair and asks the questions: what does it mean to be oriented? What does it mean to be sexually oriented? What does it mean then to queer? Is it disorientation?
From a casual reader's point of view, the first chapter was fascinating. Looking at a spatial set up often taken for granted, even if the decor may differ from room to room, and applying it to the language of sexual identity was mind blowing. But as the book progressed and the same room and the same table and chair were reevaluated over and over, I began to want something more. I wanted analysis of different rooms, or different interpretations of what a dining room space is or even just a table and chair. I wanted some examples of queer space (if there is such a thing) or be challenged into imagining such a thing.
So for me, the book was a good starting point. I noted down some of the more interesting sounding references and have added them to my wishlist. I hope to get to them as I progress through that list.
The cover image of Queer Phenomenology explains quite succinctly what the book is about. Phenomenology is the study of structures and space from first person point of view. It is related to other studies such as ontology and epistemology. So it's the why is this space the way it is and how does it affect me or more generally people in the space.
Sara Ahmed's four chapter book starts with a dining room scene with a table and chair and asks the questions: what does it mean to be oriented? What does it mean to be sexually oriented? What does it mean then to queer? Is it disorientation?
From a casual reader's point of view, the first chapter was fascinating. Looking at a spatial set up often taken for granted, even if the decor may differ from room to room, and applying it to the language of sexual identity was mind blowing. But as the book progressed and the same room and the same table and chair were reevaluated over and over, I began to want something more. I wanted analysis of different rooms, or different interpretations of what a dining room space is or even just a table and chair. I wanted some examples of queer space (if there is such a thing) or be challenged into imagining such a thing.
So for me, the book was a good starting point. I noted down some of the more interesting sounding references and have added them to my wishlist. I hope to get to them as I progress through that list.
March 20, 2025
sara ahmed te amo sos todo lo que aspiro ser como escritora de textos académicos
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October 1, 2020If you are interested in reading and writing through this book with me over the course of 6 weeks check out Fall 2020 Queer Phenomenology Germinar with Zoe Tuck!
July 18, 2024
Opened my eyes to my horizons before opening the horizons themselves
February 7, 2021
Great book. Evocatively written. Convincing arguments. Excellent and innovative interpretations.
I've never been hugely convinced by phenomenology. However, this book has demonstrated its value to me. I'll never be evangelically fixated - but I can appreciate its intellectual value.
Similarly the attention to queerness is welcome. My first engagement with queer theory commenced in the early 1990s. There is some fine theorization here, working through the key trope of the book: orientation.
This is a powerful and pleasant reading experience. It also activates “a politics that involves disorientation.” This is theoretically useful and politically potent.
I've never been hugely convinced by phenomenology. However, this book has demonstrated its value to me. I'll never be evangelically fixated - but I can appreciate its intellectual value.
Similarly the attention to queerness is welcome. My first engagement with queer theory commenced in the early 1990s. There is some fine theorization here, working through the key trope of the book: orientation.
This is a powerful and pleasant reading experience. It also activates “a politics that involves disorientation.” This is theoretically useful and politically potent.
July 26, 2022
Ahora lo veo todo con la mirada más desorientada
March 29, 2025
Me ha gustado mucho el libro. Es cierto que es muy distinto a la obra de Butler y me ha interpelado de una manera distinta por los temas que habla, pero las ideas de entender como nos encontramos en el mundo a través de los objetos me ha parecido súper interesante
July 14, 2016
I'm going to say up front that what follows is my interpretation of Sara Ahmed's book, as it stands now. This a book that rewards multiple readings and I feel already that my understanding is going to change and grow as I return to it; as far as I'm considered, that openness to re-reading is the pinnacle of what a good philosophical discussion should strive for, and she nails it.
I've read a lot of phenomenology, while still feeling like a neophyte on the subject. I've read some of Heidegger's work, some Bernard Stiegler, some of the object-oriented ontology folk. Essentially, phenomenology is the study of what we perceive around us, as opposed to ontology, the study of our being (there's a lot of overlap). The problem with a lot of approaches to phenomenology, in my opinion, is that they ignore subjectivity in favour of exploring a universal approach to what it means to be human and perceive things. From the ground up (or maybe the table up), Ahmed centers her work around the notion of orientation, how our sense of phenomenology is never this abstract, objective thing but shaped by our past bodily experiences.
As such, the book is divided into three parts: the first part is a general discussion of orientation and phenomenology, the second specifically a queer female phenomenology, and the third, phenomenology as an issue of race. The figure of the table plays a major part of the book, as Ahmed gives a very thorough exploration of how past philosophers have used the table as a metaphor for the project of philosophy, and how their orientation to that table reveals or hides aspects of their larger orientation. I'm always impressed when scholars manage to meaningfully draw on their own experiences, and Sara Ahmed's life as a queer PoC absolutely plays a major role in discussion. She also does another thing that I always appreciate in a scholarly book: the conclusion is not something that's a tossed off summary, almost afterthought on what came before, but a true culmination and extension of her ideas into the future. (Adrienne Shaw's Gaming at the Edge is another exemplar of the well-written academic book conclusion.)
If the book has any faults, it's that the first chapter felt a little unfocused, especially compared to the latter chapters. Perhaps that's deliberate; it would make sense that a study of orientation would mean first letting yourself get a little lost. Or maybe it's something that will become clearer on re-reading, when I re-orient myself to her text.
I think a good encapsulation of what I found so valuable about this text are the following two quotations.
This is from Barthes' book on photography, where he indulges in an aside about his aunt:
“(this sister of my father never married, lived with her mother as an old maid, and I had always been saddened whenever I thought of her dreary life)” (53)
In contrast, here is one of Ahmed's footnotes:
"In a way, it is fitting that it is the lives and loves of politically active women that sustains this connection [to her Pakistani roots]: women who refuse to define themselves through men, and who orientate their lives creatively around other women. This became an especially important connection when my father ended contact with me when I told him about my queer life. It is only through aunts that any connections to my Pakistani family is now possible. It is interesting to imagine how family stories might be told differently through the very affective labor of the women who don't reproduce the family line; who in a conventional family tree would just be an 'end point.' In an alternative or queer genealogy, life might even unfold from such points."
Barthes' words have always echoed with me, in the way they are affectionate to the aunt, but simultaneously dismissive and condescending, how quickly he surmises her life must have been dreary and empty. Without addressing Barthes directly, Ahmed presents a counterargument. Both philosophers are using asides to tie their family relations to their philosophical action, but Ahmed recognizes the potential value of a woman's experience to a family beyond just getting married and perpetuating the lines of inheritance. I think it's a perfect example of what a queer orientation has to offer phenomenology and philosophy at large.
I've read a lot of phenomenology, while still feeling like a neophyte on the subject. I've read some of Heidegger's work, some Bernard Stiegler, some of the object-oriented ontology folk. Essentially, phenomenology is the study of what we perceive around us, as opposed to ontology, the study of our being (there's a lot of overlap). The problem with a lot of approaches to phenomenology, in my opinion, is that they ignore subjectivity in favour of exploring a universal approach to what it means to be human and perceive things. From the ground up (or maybe the table up), Ahmed centers her work around the notion of orientation, how our sense of phenomenology is never this abstract, objective thing but shaped by our past bodily experiences.
As such, the book is divided into three parts: the first part is a general discussion of orientation and phenomenology, the second specifically a queer female phenomenology, and the third, phenomenology as an issue of race. The figure of the table plays a major part of the book, as Ahmed gives a very thorough exploration of how past philosophers have used the table as a metaphor for the project of philosophy, and how their orientation to that table reveals or hides aspects of their larger orientation. I'm always impressed when scholars manage to meaningfully draw on their own experiences, and Sara Ahmed's life as a queer PoC absolutely plays a major role in discussion. She also does another thing that I always appreciate in a scholarly book: the conclusion is not something that's a tossed off summary, almost afterthought on what came before, but a true culmination and extension of her ideas into the future. (Adrienne Shaw's Gaming at the Edge is another exemplar of the well-written academic book conclusion.)
If the book has any faults, it's that the first chapter felt a little unfocused, especially compared to the latter chapters. Perhaps that's deliberate; it would make sense that a study of orientation would mean first letting yourself get a little lost. Or maybe it's something that will become clearer on re-reading, when I re-orient myself to her text.
I think a good encapsulation of what I found so valuable about this text are the following two quotations.
This is from Barthes' book on photography, where he indulges in an aside about his aunt:
“(this sister of my father never married, lived with her mother as an old maid, and I had always been saddened whenever I thought of her dreary life)” (53)
In contrast, here is one of Ahmed's footnotes:
"In a way, it is fitting that it is the lives and loves of politically active women that sustains this connection [to her Pakistani roots]: women who refuse to define themselves through men, and who orientate their lives creatively around other women. This became an especially important connection when my father ended contact with me when I told him about my queer life. It is only through aunts that any connections to my Pakistani family is now possible. It is interesting to imagine how family stories might be told differently through the very affective labor of the women who don't reproduce the family line; who in a conventional family tree would just be an 'end point.' In an alternative or queer genealogy, life might even unfold from such points."
Barthes' words have always echoed with me, in the way they are affectionate to the aunt, but simultaneously dismissive and condescending, how quickly he surmises her life must have been dreary and empty. Without addressing Barthes directly, Ahmed presents a counterargument. Both philosophers are using asides to tie their family relations to their philosophical action, but Ahmed recognizes the potential value of a woman's experience to a family beyond just getting married and perpetuating the lines of inheritance. I think it's a perfect example of what a queer orientation has to offer phenomenology and philosophy at large.
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August 26, 2024my bible. my tiny tiny complaint would be that i wish the conclusion was more fleshed out. but this book is brilliant.
key concepts:
spatiality of subject formation
skin as interface
“straightening device” and “disorientating device” (queer)
lines taken vs not taken
political economy of attention / givenness of the familiar (given = that without contours)
the bodily horizon
habitus (bourdieu) and the habitual body (merleau-ponty)
repetitive strain injury
reorientation after disorientation
oblique/queer (merleau-ponty) vs vertical (eg reproduction) and horizontal (eg marriage) axes
gender’s relationship to sexuality
contingent sexuality
orientation towards the other as both negation and extension; around (subject, occident) vs toward (object, orient)
genealogy as straightening device
interconnectedness of heterosexuality and whiteness as both the family and social ego ideals
physical motility / social mobility
contact zone
spectral objects
“facing” and the backward glance
parallel vs crossing lines
space that “extends” vs “stops” or hinders the body
queer surfaces make new paths and form new grounds
key concepts:
spatiality of subject formation
skin as interface
“straightening device” and “disorientating device” (queer)
lines taken vs not taken
political economy of attention / givenness of the familiar (given = that without contours)
the bodily horizon
habitus (bourdieu) and the habitual body (merleau-ponty)
repetitive strain injury
reorientation after disorientation
oblique/queer (merleau-ponty) vs vertical (eg reproduction) and horizontal (eg marriage) axes
gender’s relationship to sexuality
contingent sexuality
orientation towards the other as both negation and extension; around (subject, occident) vs toward (object, orient)
genealogy as straightening device
interconnectedness of heterosexuality and whiteness as both the family and social ego ideals
physical motility / social mobility
contact zone
spectral objects
“facing” and the backward glance
parallel vs crossing lines
space that “extends” vs “stops” or hinders the body
queer surfaces make new paths and form new grounds
Read
March 10, 2025Look, I decided to embark on the adventure of reading this book after having it as a secondary source in a great class. It has taken me forever and I'm not sure I remember half of what I read. With this being said, I think I'll have to read it at least a couple more times to fully understand Ahmed's arguments. Still, Ahmed's discussion on the different ways of being "oriented" and "disoriented" is definitely making me analyze my own orientation in every space.
April 15, 2025
by account of the ways by which I have seen academics in 'the studies' take up Ahmed's work on phenomenology, I had expected to find therewithin only some milquetoast gesture, some infantile grasping towards a project. Was so pleasantly surprised to read such a thoughtful, rigorous, queer engagement with the corpora of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. Very re-orientating, so to speak. I'll be thinking about this for a while.
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December 27, 2024me ha encantado como sara ahmed trata lo queer desde la fenomenología. los conceptos de cómo percibimos los objetos y cuál es nuestra relación con ellos, cómo ciertas orientaciones permiten extender al propio ser humano en el espacio que habita y cómo otras lo paran y reprimen, las líneas verticales que marcan caminos o la comprensión de las políticas queer desde la infinidad de desorientaciones.
abordar la creación del espacio desde la fenomenología permite entender cómo ciertas cosas han llegado y se extienden y otras cosas no y cómo ciertos objetos toman su forma en relación a quien mira y a lo que hay detrás de ellas para poder comprender su silueta.
lo recomiendo un montón me volvió loca.
abordar la creación del espacio desde la fenomenología permite entender cómo ciertas cosas han llegado y se extienden y otras cosas no y cómo ciertos objetos toman su forma en relación a quien mira y a lo que hay detrás de ellas para poder comprender su silueta.
lo recomiendo un montón me volvió loca.
January 21, 2025
زندگیم به قبل و بعد از این کتاب تقسیم میشه!
it changed the trajectory of my life!
it changed the trajectory of my life!
January 14, 2023
Really powerful book. I liked how everything was so spatial. A lot of it hinges on the idea of compulsory heteronormativity which did limit some of the conclusions. Also, some of the stuff about "objects" and "tables" and "movement" could be intuited from the main basic idea of disorientation and got a bit hard to read. Also, I somewhat struggle with the fact that so many critiques are based on small etymological technicalities. I read this book for almost a year and I'll probably re-read it.
February 3, 2014
Phenomenology provides Ahmed a set of tools for thinking about orientation, or bodily spatial awareness. How do you orient yourself, how to follow or what it means to follow a direction, which line shall you follow? Through an exhaustive analysis of "alternate" orientation and philosophical tables (yes, actual writing tables as the metaphor that ties this book together from beginning to end!) Ahmed explores how spatial distinctions and awareness are implicated in how bodies get directed in specific ways. The orientation, for Ahmed, is about how the bodily, the spatial, and the social are entangled.
April 16, 2024
my first book of theory and the most influential in my journey to understand myself and my queerness. <3 love you Sara Ahmed
July 12, 2024
leerlo ha sido alucinante ojalá pudiera memorizarlo
December 22, 2021
There were many revelations in this. On a general level, I take away a new sensitivity to the spatial and experiential dimension of words we use to describe “being in” one’s sexuality and just Life. But what spoke to me most was Sara Ahmed’s ideas on family trees, inheritance as gift, burden, and debt of heterosexuality, & the refusal of inheritance which is the refusal of these things (I love chapter 2 and 3 so much!) Ahmed also has such an imaginative and compelling way of writing that makes her deep and nuanced ideas quite accessible.
I’m so glad I read this!
I’m so glad I read this!
February 9, 2024
Sadly, I've come to the conclusion that phenomenology, and by extension, philosophy, isn't for me. If it were, though, I would have loved this! So many insightful passages on queerness. I definitely recommend this to anyone who is into more philosophical texts but I simply can't take another sentence about tables again. Great subject matter with interesting personal anecdotes that I'll definitely look back on.
August 1, 2025
He disfrutado mucho leyendo este libro. Ha sido todo un proceso, que ha durado lo justo para poder entender al máximo lo que leía. Me parece absolutamente maravilloso como habla de los objetos y como relaciona todo ese mundo con lo queer. He descubierto nuevas formas de comprender lo queer y de visualizarlo. Me ha explotado la cabeza en cada capítulo. Decir también que mi TFG se ha inspirado en su mayoría de este libro así que :_) guardaremos buen recuerdo. Volveré a él probablemente.
December 15, 2022
Muy interesante pero a medida que avanzas en el libro los términos se vuelven un poco más complejos y puede resultar algo pesado para alguien que no esté familiarizado con la filosofia ❤️
December 4, 2024
No soy muy fan de la fenomenología y me parece que hay ideas muy brillantes pero se me ha hecho tan pesado... No por denso sino por repetitivo. Creo que podría condensarse en un artículo largo idk
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May 2, 2025Duurde even maar love
May 7, 2025
one of those things that rewired my brain
February 12, 2025
Topografia spaziale dell'orientamento (non solo sessuale) e altre geografie embedded di bianchezza e orientalismo.
January 28, 2023
Que maravilla de libro!
August 27, 2019
This is the smartest book I've ever read. It's also one of the most lucid and clearest books I've ever read. Sara Ahmed writes so fluidly, with such insight and clarity, and without the opaque academic jargon you might expect from a book with the word "Phenomenology" in the title. It's rare I get excited over a theoretical/philosophical text, but Ahmed's perspective here is truly mind-changing. This is a book that won't let you look at the world around you the same way again. Ahmed is attentive to the background in this book-- the way that we inhabit the world around us, and how the spaces we inhabit, and the bodies and objects within those spaces, shape and are shaped by our contact with them. Ahmed ultimately pushes for a politics of disorientation-- of looking at the world askew, of allowing new bodies and objects to come into view as we take up new perspectives and see the world from a different angle. Ahmed reveals how our ways of living and relating to others are shaped by the repetitions of certain gestures and social formations over time, and she looks to new pathways to follow, or to moments where we deviate from following the well-worn straightened lines that have come before us, and it is in these moments we can become "disoriented" in order to shape new contours into the world. This is a book I would recommend to anyone. 10/10
May 7, 2015
Not as wonderful as I had anticipated. A friend of mine read it and shared their favourite quotes with me (there were many), but those seemed to be the best part of the book, and the in between was not as great as the parts I had already heard. Another point of contention is that Ahmed claims that her book is refined to her POC Lesbian experience, but it doesn't seem as narrow as she claims, or as I had desired. Ahmed does not really keep it refined to her initially stated point of view; she instead broadens it (which is nice in some sentences, but does not live up to her claims).
A possibly (though not entirely) redeeming quote:
"Distance is lived as the slipping away of the reachable."
A possibly (though not entirely) redeeming quote:
"Distance is lived as the slipping away of the reachable."
March 27, 2020
As a PhD student, I spend a lot of time reading highly academic and theoretical texts...with that said, this book was so pretentious, I struggled through every page. It kind of felt like I was just reading a really artsy, arrogant, overly-educated person's journal.
Most of the other students in my cohort loved it and even organized an Ahmed reading and conference to devote an entire semester's course to reading more of this stuff. Personally, this is not for me.
Most of the other students in my cohort loved it and even organized an Ahmed reading and conference to devote an entire semester's course to reading more of this stuff. Personally, this is not for me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews