酷儿理论是一种1980年代初在美国形成的文化理论。它批判性地研究生理的性别决定系统、社会的性别角色和性取向。酷儿理论认为性别认同和性取向不是“天然”的，而是通过社会和文化过程形成的。酷儿理论使用解构主义、后结构主义、话语分析和性别研究等手段来分析和解构性别认同、权力形式和常规。米歇尔·福柯、朱迪斯·巴特勒、伊芙·科索夫斯基·赛菊寇和迈克尔·华纳等是酷儿理论的重要理论家和先驱。把酷儿理论应用到各种学科的研究被称为酷儿研究。

新一代的酷儿理论不仅解构性，而且还分析文化的各个方面，但是在这个过程中总是联系到性别和性别角色，尤其是批评其中的压迫成分。在这个过程中酷儿这个概念不断被重新定义，来扩展它的含义，扩大它包含的人群。但是正是由于这个概念定义的不清晰性和任意性，它也受到各种不同团体的批评。

Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of queer studies and women's studies. Queer theory includes both queer readings of texts and the theorisation of 'queerness' itself. Heavily influenced by the work of Lauren Berlant, Leo Bersani, Judith Butler, Lee Edelman, Jack Halberstam, David Halperin, José Esteban Muñoz, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, queer theory builds both upon feminist challenges to the idea that gender is part of the essential self and upon gay/lesbian studies' close examination of the socially constructed nature of sexual acts and identities. Whereas gay/lesbian studies focused its inquiries into natural and unnatural behaviour with respect to homosexual behaviour, queer theory expands its focus to encompass any kind of sexual activity or identity that falls into normative and deviant categories. Italian feminist and film theorist Teresa de Lauretis coined the term "queer theory" for a conference she organized at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1990 and a special issue of Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies she edited based on that conference.