Author: PV

In Lisa Duggan’s book, Equality, Inc., Duggan says, “‘Equality’ becomes narrow, formal access to a few conservativizing institutions, ‘freedom’ becomes immunity for bigotry and vast inequalities in commercial life and civil society, the ‘right to privacy’ becomes domestic confinement, and democratic politics itself becomes something to be escaped” (65-66). Duggan example of equality becoming narrow is what she refers to as “gay tunnel vision” which focuses on issues such as marriage equality rather than issues faced by disadvantaged populations within the queer community. Her reference to conservativizing institutions relates to the Human Rights Campaign sponsoring things like pride marches. She mentions how institutions like the Human Rights Campaign do not focus on the true issues queer communities face but rather superficial issues that primarily affect upper middle class cis white gay men. They also make a profit on these fights for equality. Further, Duggan’s mention of freedom reinforces her idea of gay tunnel vision in that many within the queer face inequalities that are not addressed. Finally, Duggan mentions the “right to privacy” becoming “domestic confinement” because many queer issues have been limited to issues such as gay marriage which is an attempt to assimilate to straight heteronormative ideas.

Lisa Duggan, “Equality, Inc.,” in The Twilight of Equality?: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy (Boston: Beacon Press, 2003), 43-66.

In Dean Spade’s essay, “What’s Wrong With Rights?”, Dean Spade identifies the shortcomings of both current law reforms and shortcomings of hate crime laws. For example, current law reform such as discrimination laws takes into account what is called the perpetrator perspective. This perspective fails to take into account the historical context of discrimination such as racism. Additionally, it seeks out those who are overtly biased rather than those who discriminate due to systemic or institutional systems in place. It fails to take into account daily disparities due to race, class, gender, disabilities, etc. These discrimination laws also increase the idea of colorblindness which does not take into account the systemic issues that shape this discrimination. Spade goes on to argue that the perpetrator perspective creates a false sense that marginalized groups are now equal and will be treated fairly. This does a disservice to the individuals the laws are trying to protect.

Spade goes on to highlight the shortcomings of hate crime laws. Hate crime laws oversimplify the issue and have no deterrent effects on criminals who commit the crimes against marginalized groups. Spade goes on to argue that people do not read law books and choose not to engage in bias motivated violence before committing a crime just because it carries a harsher sentence. Therefore, these laws do not increase the life chances of the people they aim to protect. Further, hate crime laws strengthen and legitimize the criminals that target the individuals and communities that these laws are made to protect.

Citations

Dean Spade, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2015), selected pages.

The antisocial thesis in queer theory is stated as the idea that LGBTQ+ people are incompatible with society due to societies heteronormative ideas. A particularly interesting premise of this idea that stood out to me was how this theory related to the AIDS epidemic and that 56.8% of News of the World readers thought that AIDS carriers should be sterilized and given treatment to curb their sexual appetite. This is obviously pointed at members of the LGBTQ+ community who, at the time, were seen as one of the only populations that suffered from AIDS (Bersani, 199). Additionally, societies thoughts on sex are based around procreating which causes this inherent struggle between LGBTQ+ individuals and society at large.

Politically incorrect erotic desires can been defined as acts of social deviance as these “incorrect erotic desires” do not fit in with societies ideas of sexuality at large. This connects to the antisocial thesis because these erotic desires also do not align with societies ideas of sex and sexuality. Rodríguez focuses on fantasy rather than sexual practices because fantasies allow for sexual possibilities outside of just the culture norms of white able bodied men. Rodríguez’s idea of sexual fantasies allows the inclusion of a spectrum of race, gender, and power within sexual desires as opposed to Bersani and Eldman’s focus on sexual acts and practices which revolve mainly around anal sex.

Citations:

Robert L. Caserio, Lee Edelman, Judith Halberstam, José Esteban Muñoz and Tim Dean, “The Antisocial Thesis in Queer Theory,” PMLA 121, no. 3 (May, 2006): 819-828.

Leo Bersani: “Is the Rectum a Grave?” October 43 (Winter, 1987): 197- 222.

Juana María Rodríguez, “Queer Sociality and Other Sexual Fantasies,” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 17, no. 2 (2011): 331-48.

Lee Edelman, “The Future Is Kid Stuff,” in No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004), 1-32.

The above photograph depicts one protest as a part of the feminist anti-pornography movement. This directly relates to Rubin’s term “sex panic” due to the moral, social, and political panic that was happening around the porn industry. The moral panic of pornography was that children would be subjected to these pornographic images and that pornography is objectifying to women. Further, the right does not support pornography due to their belief in family values and the use of sex for procreation. This resulted in multiple protests and calls for legislation to prevent pornography.

Asexuality complicates this objection of pornography because asexuality does not conform to sexual hierarchical roles and can be seen as deviant. At the same time, asexuality is a lack of sexual behavior and therefore would likely not partake in the watching of or production of pornography.

Image from http://www.ownzee.com/cschmid

Gayle Rubin, “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality,” in Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality , ed. Carole S. Vance (Boston: Routledge,1992), 143-172.

Ela Przybylo, “Introducing Asexuality, Unthinking Sex,” in Introducing the New Sexuality Studies , 3rd ed., eds. Nancy L. Fischer and Steven Seidman (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), 181-189.

In the poem “To Live in the Boarderlands,” by Gloria Anzaldua, the stanza, “to survive the Boarderlands/ you must live sin fronteras/ be a crossroads” closes the poem. The poem discusses living in the borderland and not fully being one identity or another. Rather than identifying as one thing, the poet is a combination of thing. These different identities may be conflicting with each other. The poem discusses the poets confusion of these conflicting identities. This results in the confusion of where the poets place is within their community where they feel they may not fully belong. In the final stanza, sin fronteras translates to without boarders. This can be understood as to survive the borderlands you must live without borders. In other words, you must be able to cross over from one identity to the next. This is further displayed with the poets use of transitioning between the English and Spanish language. The poet never fully speaks English and never fully speaks Spanish. By doing so they are able to merge their identities and cultures into one. They are able to live in both situations. They can transition from one identity to the other because both identities are theirs.

Gloria Anzaldúa, “To Live In the Borderlands Means You,” in Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1987), 194-195.

In Alison Reed’s essay, “The Whiter the Bread,” Reed says, “…fetishization of blackness produces its own logics of disavowal, reinforcing hegemonic understandings of race by articulating embodiment in post-racial terms. Whiteness, then, goes unacknowledged and unexamined, while uncritically reproducing multiculturalist logics that mainstream visibility can smooth over ongoing injustices, precisely by exploiting the hypervisibility of black bodies for a white queer politics of injury” (57).​ When Reed discusses the “embodiment in post-racial terms,” (57) Reed highlights the point that many think that racism and the race problem have been over since the civil rights movement. Reed discusses colorblind politics and how treating everyone the same, as in we all have the same experiences regardless of race, is a disadvantage. Systematic racism must be taken into account to have an inclusive and intersectional view of queer theory rather than just the white queer theory that has become so popular.

Reed also discusses “the hypervisibility of black bodies for a white queer politics of injury” (57). Reed is referring to the tokenization of black individuals in the queer movement. This tokenization leads to many thinking that the queer movement is inclusive of these individuals when in fact their concerns are often not addressed within queer politics. Further, the inclusion of black bodies adds in the illusion of white queer people not having racial privilege because they are in an injured state or have a sense of otherness. We can clearly see in countless examples how black bodies are tokenized. Black individuals, although seemingly present in the queer movement, are often not given a chance to voice their concerns and the injustices they may face. Rather than being colorblind to these injustices, it would add the queer movement to become more inclusive and unpack the layers of privilege that may be present.

Alison Reed “The Whiter the Bread, the Quicker You’re Dead. Spectacular Absence and Post-Racialized Blackness in (White) Queer Theory, in No Tea, No Shade. New Writings in Black Queer Studies , ed. E. Patrick Johnson (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2016), 287-301.

My definition personal definition of queer theory, as developed in last class, is that queer theory questions and challenges gender and sexuality in our society. It aims to push our thoughts of gender and sexuality to the edge. Coming from an environmental studies major, it may be less clear as to how one may apply perspectives of queer theory. I think that queer theory can help those of the same or similar major become more inquisitive about what is typically accepted as fact. It may help us push boundaries and strive for a deeper understanding in existing systems. Rather than just going along with what we’ve always been told, queer theory allows us to further question systems in place to get a better understanding of why they’re there, if they’re needed, and if they could be improved upon. Further, as one of the most progressive generations thus far, I believe it is important for us to decide what kind of future we would like to see for our generation and future generations.

Cathy Cohen points out the relationship between the institution of marriage and white supremacy. For example, Cohen points out that central to the American legal tradition was the preservation of the white race. Interracial marriage was made illegal to prevent the mixing of races and, although we think of this as a far off past, these laws were not repealed until 1967. This relates to Cohen’s pleas for “difficult work of coalition politics” (484). Only after we address these issues intersectionality in terms of race, class, and gender privilege will we be able to begin the work on this coalition of politics. The coalition of politics is so difficult because so many needs and injustices need to be addressed at once and it needs to be done intersectionality to prevent groups being left out. It’s hard to balance all of the needs of such a varying group of people.

Cathy J. Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” GLQ 3 (1997): 437-465.