Feeling So Unusual: Cyndi Lauper and Queer Affect

Investigating the work of pop star Cyndi Lauper prompts new reckonings with such concepts as intensity, ecology, and mood, foundational to affect theory. This essay traces the queer force of Lauper’s music—and its relevance to renovating affect theory—through three central movements: feeling intense, feeling inside/out, and feeling brightness, darkly.