From allochronism to generationality: Ageism in queer communities in Belgium

Abstract

This paper looks into ageist and generationalist assumptions that penetrate queer spatio-temporal imageries and explore how to resist oppressive temporalities. It draws on fieldwork in a queer advocacy group and qualitative interviews with trans-, lesbian-, and women-identifying participants in Belgium to explore notions of age and ageism in queer communities. The research relates to feminist generationalism and searches for more complex notions of generationality that complicate the idea of horizontal generations or waves succeeding each other in progressive time. We address the conflicts and dissimilarities across the generational divide to question and trouble the viability of allochronic categorizations in feminist queer movements.