THE QUEER GAZE has been Kulturhuset Oceanen’s literary series since 2023.
The term “The Male Gaze” was coined by Laura Mulvey to describe the gaze that views women as objects for heterosexual male pleasure. As a response, “The Female Gaze” emerged, seeking to disrupt this dynamic and position women as observers. With the program series The Queer Gaze, Oceanen further develops these terms by highlighting how the queer gaze deconstructs all gender-based power dynamics, allowing authors to act as subjects and tell their own stories.

The program offers Oceanen’s stage to one invited writer per evening, giving them the freedom to curate content based on a theme of their own choosing. Among previous themes and invited guests, we have seen: Sanna Samuelsson (Lust), Sandy Harry Ceesay (Physical Practice as Resistance), BAM — Burcu Sahin, Athena Farrokhzad and Merima Dizdarević — (The Queer Gaza), Maja Lee Langvad (New Kinships), Nino Mick (Experiment), Judith Kiros (Sapphic Fragments), Khaled Alesmael (In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun), Ida Linde & Kristofer Folkhammar (Tender Buttons), Hanna Rajs (Historians Will Call Them Close Friends), and many, many more.