Regulating Sexualities Through Gender-Based Rhetoric: The Experiences of Queer Women of Color in Culturally-Based Sororities

Authors

Crystal E. Garcia, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Antonio Duran, Auburn UniversityFollow

ORCID IDs

Crystal E. Garcia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6572-0541

Antonio Duran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3990-6796

Date of this Version

2022

Citation

Garcia, C. E., & Duran, A. (2022). Regulating sexualities through gender-based rhetoric: The experiences of Queer Women of Color in culturally-based sororities. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 15(6), 778-789. doi: 10.1037/dhe0000312

Comments

Copyright © 2021 National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. Used by permission.

"This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal."

Abstract

Culturally based sororities emerged on college campuses in order to combat the race-based discrimination faced in historically white sororities. Despite their historic mission to attend to racial issues, questions remain of how culturally based sororities attend to other identities and forms of oppression in these spaces. Centering the stories of 20 Queer Women of Color, this critical narrative inquiry study sought to understand how members of culturally based sororities used gender-based rhetoric to regulate sexual minorities in these spaces. Findings revealed how organizations constructed what it meant to be a Woman of Color, how they used gendered stereotypes and sexuality in recruitment/selection, and the differences that existed between chapters and national organizations. Implications for future research and practice are then offered.