Ecoqueer: Moving Beyond Ecocomposition's Heteronormative Binaries

An examination of ecocomposition reveals that despite being careful to embrace
all humans, it is still operating from a heterononnative standpoint. This perspective has
led to an exclusion of gay male writers from its place-based approach to the study of the
production of writing. By including the work of gay nature writer James Schuyler, the
boundaries of ecocomposition are expanded to include yet another way of moving
beyond restrictive cultural dualisms. Schuyler's work shows that definitions of
masculinity need to be expanded to include gay males, and also highlights how sexual
identity and setting interact to produce various interpretations of the self in one's writing.
An expansion of ecocomposition results in a truly liberatory theory and pedagogy, one
that encourages interactions that promote of all kinds of writing by all kinds of writers.