Queer futures? Forget it! Dementia, queer theory and the limits of normativity

Abstract

This article, which takes inspiration from Sandberg and Marshall's (2017) critique of successful ageing futures, considers how dementia is framed, arguing that it needs to be queered beyond a simple challenge of the biomedical model. The article draws on ideas from Queer Theory to demonstrate how dementia is framed within normative tropes around loss, decline and forgetting. Using Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) the article undertakes a detailed reading of an advertisement produced by Alzheimer's Society, UK, an important cultural intermediary in framing how dementia is understood culturally. The analysis highlights three key features of categorisation work used in the advertisement: framing the multigenerational family; being isolated and alone with dementia; and recapturing hope/de-queering dementia. The articles show how cultural texts intended to educate the public about dementia, draw on and propagate normative tropes about the condition that frames it in heteronormative, reproductive, futurological terms. The ramifications of this are discussed in the analytic discussion and conclusions section.