Abstract:

Constrained Agency and Queer Resistance: Religious Narratives as Sites of Transgression

How do religious narratives simultaneously construct gendered norms and contain elements that resist or unsettle them? This presentation develops constrained agency as a theoretical framework for understanding resistance within—rather than outside—oppressive religious structures. Rather than assuming victims of religious patriarchy are simply passive, the paper demonstrates how agents strategically work within inescapable constraints to create meaning and challenge dominant interpretations.

Drawing on feminist philosophy (from Kristeva to Butler) and queer theory (Hornsby and Guest), the paper argues that constrained agency operates through what appears to be compliance but introduces critical difference: strategic speech that exposes the human rather than divine origins of oppressive demands; rituals that create counter-memory challenging official narratives; and refusals to be silenced despite material vulnerability.

This framework reveals the queer potential within religious traditions themselves—their capacity to harbor elements that defy simple classification, unsettle normative orders, and express resistance through ambiguous, fluid strategies. Rather than positioning religion as either irredeemably patriarchal or ideologically redemptive, constrained agency shows how marginalized subjects navigate religious traditions by creating micro-practices of meaning-making and solidarity that survive despite systemic violence.

The paper contributes to Gender and Queer Studies by offering tools for analyzing how power, embodiment, and desire operate within religious discourses, and how “living differently” emerges not through transcendence but through strategic interventions that honor both agency and constraint. It demonstrates how queerness functions as a methodology for reopening religious texts and practices to possibilities of critique and reimagining.

Keywords: Constrained Agency, Gender, Queer Resistance, Religious Traditions, Feminist Theory, Power and Embodiment