Queer theory is fundamentally about epistemology and representation, and how individual
subjects become subjectified through language and culture. The social context in which that
subjectification occurs, while it is always acknowledged as a kind of general backdrop, is not, in itself, a matter of great concern to most theorists. Furthermore, queer theory's focus on language – and on agency and resistance to language and through language – means that subjects who have no language (for example, because they are physically and/or intellectually impaired) fit awkwardly with queer theory, and are only partially and unsatisfactorily dealt with in offshoots like "crip theory". How can we respectfully engage with people who will never be agents in the queer sense of being able to mount a “reverse discourse” or a “performative re-iteration”?
