Färg, sax, kropp och stil : En intervjustudie om hur den svarta tredelade kostymen queeras

Sammanfattning: This essay aims to investigate how young queer people describe, relate to, negotiate and queer the symbolism of the black three-piece suit. The study is based on five interviews with young queer people living in Stockholm. The essay's main theoretical approach includes the work by queer theorist Judith Butler and semiotician Roland Barthes. For the interviewees, the black three-piece suit symbolizes a masculinity connected with power and the upper class, a masculinity that is not available to them and that they distance themselves from. When queering the black three-piece suit, they renegotiate this symbolism and performatively create queer identity. The result suggest that it is the combination of the body and the clothes that creates queerness. For the interviewees, queer fashion is about wearing clothes in ways that reinforce queer identity positions. At the same time, queerness is in constant change, which means that the queer potential cannot be predicted. Queering the black three-piece suit is, for the interviewees, a process of trial and error. It is about testing combinations of colours, accessories, and bodies.