💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › gusselsprouts-queerness-and-communism.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 10:40:15. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
➡️ Next capture (2024-07-09)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: Queerness and Communism Author: GusselSprouts Date: September 4, 2013 Language: en Topics: Queer, gay communism Source: Retrieved on 9th December 2021 from https://theexpropriationist.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/queerness-and-communism-building-a-genderless-society-through-social-warfare-with-normativity/
The world I agitate for is a stateless, classless, genderless society.
Only a social revolution can end the oppressive social forces of gender
and sex. These forces, while much older than modern capitalism, have
been intrinsically tied to capital and coerced into particular
relations. The social relations of capital and hetero-normativity
intersect in a way that puts our bodies in a perpetual social war. The
normative gender binary is a force which also, like capitalism, seeks to
exist in totality.
Queer theory began as a radical alternative to the liberal movements of
Gender Studies and Gay and Lesbian Studies. Much of the analysis is
post-modern, but has its roots deep in modern social science. Queer
Theorists like Judith Butler study the performance of gender, and
several others have elaborated quite eloquently on the intersections of
gender roles, expressions and identities (or lack there of). Some of
these developments inevitably have caused head butting amongst
Feminists.
Queerness can not be seen as a stable place to inhabit. It is a response
to normativity, the social force which queers us. It is in that that we
find those who “identify” as a part of the LGBT community, and those who
absolutely do not. We find all the alphabet soup acronyms (QUILTBAG
being the worst offender I’ve seen thus far) to have far to many
inadequacies. We’re an anti-identity, unstable and full of loose ends. I
never asked to be a “Gay man”, society socialized me as such, in the
process the same force queers me.
In seeing the class dynamics of Queerness, how do we organize a mass
that is a theoretical anti-identity, and unstable place to inhabit? We
are already at war, between our bodies and society. This war is already
not voluntary. We face societal violence with a character unlike any
other struggle.
Much of the Post-Left Anarchist movement identifies with Queer theorist
critique of identity. This gravitation, although I’m not identifying a
correlation, occurs simultaneously with a general (from my experience)
straight and cis domination of Anarcho-Syndicalist and Class War
Anarchist movements. Beyond that, it seems much of modern Marxist
thought depends on notions of “LGBT rights” and less on Queer Theory. I
find this to be far too great of shortcoming for any revolutionary
leftist ideology.
To be Queer is to have your mind and body born into conflict with
capitalism. It comes with material and social conditions which leave us
marginalized.
This is a different kind of social war we are talking about with the
queer struggle. The forces of gender polices the bodies of queer people.
With transperson life expectancy estimates ranging from 20’s-30’s, we
must resolve that queerness is irreconcilably antagonistic with it’s
“other”, the social force of cisnormativity and heteronormativity.
Social conditions inflict us with higher rates of depression, substance
abuse and other issues like HIV/AIDS plaguing our communities. All over
the world, punishments for queerness range from ostracization and
marginalization, to systematic death. We can deduct a social war has
already begun.
Just as Marx said “The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the
single sentence: Abolition of private property”, the theory of Radical
Queers can be summed up in a single sentence as well: Abolition of the
Normative. These struggles intersect, they also are capable of existing
independently. They can also serve as replications of capitalism, in
which queerness can serve capitalism and therefore counter-revolution.
It is of worth to note the ways in which Queerness behaves like a class.
It is important to note that some things do not. Trying to paint a
shared experience of a queer identity is a boundary crossing into the
normative.
When the masses are provoked to attack capital, one can expect that our
social war will be able to strategize and mobilize as well. While the
nature of our queerness remains unstable, the relationship with our
class struggle can only be symbiotic. After all, our enemies tied these
struggles together. We cannot afford to devalue these intersections.
All too often our struggles are internalized, coerced into
self-destruction, all too often our lives reflects a battle against
shame. We find all the spectacles of assimilation do not heal the pain
of growing up queer in the normative world. We often have a list of
estrangements, trauma and a general socialization of isolation and
otherness. We cannot wage this social war with assimilation. That kind
of trade with the ruling class is not a solution.
The “LGBT Rights” movement is inherently assimilationist. They seek to
soften the irreconcilable, our Queerness, by seeking union with the
status quo. I never have consented to a seat at that table. They do this
in a variety of ways. Homonormativity serves as a force to commodify
what little identity we struggle to create. The totality of the forces
siding with capitalism at the moment can be seen here. We are an
anti-identity because our identities are in constant conflict with the
ruling class.
As Radical Queers, bucking this party line has its obvious conclusions.
Should we support things like “Same-Sex Marriage”, which may improve the
lives of many of us? Despite my past critiques of “marriage equality”, I
don’t think it is really something to oppose in anything beyond theory.
However, many of us do not cheer being assimilated into a feudal
institution, a contract with the bourgeois state. It’s obvious that this
victory has a ripple effect that only goes so far.
Our conflicts with liberalism bring us to another conclusion, one that’s
an inherent distrust and skepticism to those organizing in
representation of us. This can be seen as a dialectical conclusion
between our distrust of those organizing the people in general, and
having our identity being a state of constant warfare with normativity.
Reminders of Lenin’s idea that classes fight with irreconcilable
antagonism. This is true of Queerness and our war with the Normative.
Whether our social war takes the form of an insurrection or a class
struggle is of little concern. Our attack should reflect our existence,
our queerness, and all its instability, irreconcilability, and
antagonisms. This war is permanent until the social order has been
destroyed. Much like those of other struggles, we cannot pretend our
ultimate victory will come with the end of Capital. The construction of
our material conditions is not that simple, and the socialization of
gender (the battleground for our war), will continue to reflect the
status quo.
Our enemies call us dangerous. They say we attack the feudal family
unit. They say we attack the sanctity of marriage. They say we are
waging a social war. Not only do I think we should embrace that, we
should develop strategically around that. Our existence might agitate
the ruling class, but this is not enough. If we are fighting a social
war, one we did not start, we need outlets and skills to defend
ourselves. We need our own spaces and our own revolutionary strategy,
but in a day where some of us are still struggling for pronouns, our
biological justice, and our autonomy over our own bodies, we come out on
the losing end here too, thus far.
The war we call for is not easy, and it is also not voluntary. The war
itself is our queerness. Failure to act is our downfall, and trade with
rich will avail nothing but allowing our communities to get run over.
Our only defense is destroying that which queers us.
Can we develop Communism without the dismantling of gender? Can we
afford an error like such? When forces of apartheid and dominion exist,
can we possibly resist reversion into relations of capital? This is
something for the modern world to discover, we cannot look to our past
revolutionaries for the keys with which to wield our Queerness and build
a genderless society.
Towards a Queer Communism!