[-empyre-] David Chirot: Queer *Is* Violent: Response to Part of Judith'sPosition/Statement

[naxsmash]

I was searching last night around the house for a book called "A  
Bridge We Call Home." I could not find my copy, sadly.  Does anyone  
have quotes from this book that might touch on this..http://www.amazon.com/this-bridge-call-home-transformation/product-reviews/0415936829
On Jul 21, 2009, at 10:48 AM, virginia solomon wrote:
>
>  I think. what transfeminism allows us to do, I think, is to see the  
> tactic of cutting meth for upper and middle class consumers, I  
> suppose, but to see that within a strategy that considers how race  
> and class play into drug use, how normative prescriptions of the  
> body and behavior intersect with drug use in such a way as to engage  
> issues of gender, race, and class.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 1:25 PM, Robert Summers <robtsum at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
> Hi David,
>
> I have some questions and comments re: your post:
>
> You state, "... a fighter -- i remember at the time what an immense
> moment and example this was, like the lid had been blown off the
> streets, the sewer lid, and suddenly swarming forth from the degrading
> darkness into ful view were these gladiators, tough guys, men on the
> move with weapons against the forces endlessly making them stay "in
> the closest" or bars, behind the scenes ..."
>
> I like the metaphor (but is it?) of the "sewer lid being blown off"
> and the "monstrosity" emerging: a swarm (a "war-machine"? fueled by a
> superhuman love).  I think this could be a
> corrective-as-a-return-to-radicality in "queer politics" and "queer
> action/s" that would counter the conservative turn in the major "gay
> and lesbian movements" in North America (esp. the USA) -- for example
> Equality California and the HRC, which in many aspects just has
> bisexuals and transsexuals as tokens.  Such "gay" and "lesbian"
> movements are "fighting" more for "gays in the military" and "gay
> marriage" then AIDS/HIV, queer youth, rethinking kinship, etc.  Prop 8
> in California passed, in large part, because the gay, white,
> middle-class "community" did not reach out to the working class, the
> working poor, and people of color -- as well as the places outside of
> there comfort zone: East LA, South Central, the Inland Empire, etc.
> With regard to Stonewall, I want to add that "queers" -- or then
> "gays," in the broader sense of the term, -- of color, trannies (of
> color), dykes (of color), and drag queens (of color) were also at
> Stonewall and involved in the revolt/revolution, and a similar event
> took place in LA approx. two years earlier; thus, complicating the
> narrative, the history of the "gay and lesbian movement" and
> problematizing the "masculinist" actions taken during the 3 day (?)
> up-rise.  I would like to know more of what you think of "queer
> friendship," "queer kinship," and "queer politics" -- then and now.
>
> Also, you write about "queer" and the class issue.  What does "queer
> theory" and "queer politics" have to say about class?  Has it done a
> poor job in addressing this issue: the class issue -- not to mention
> the race issue, which often dovetails into the class issues of the
> poor?
>
> Finally, for this email to you (and others), you write, "i [would]
> read Genet aloud to him and his mangy dog -- while he cut up the meth
> -- the cutting it was also a form of violence against the middle and
> upper class customers -- working kids and women like ourselves got the
> good stuff ..."
>
> This reminds me of a story by Foucault (?).  He and Jean Genet were in
> a protest and the police arrived, and as Genet was thrown to the floor
> by the police, he was drawn to the shiny, leather boots of the police.
>  This is interesting to me because Genet (as in his writing)
> eroticized power, and he reversed (if only momentarily) the movement
> of power, by turning the Subject (the Police) into objects (of
> perverse pleasure and desire).  This also shows the power of
> disidentification, if you will.  I just love the fact that the
> brutality of the police was eroticized -- turned in another direction:
> one unrecognized and unstoppable by the police, the State apparatus.
> This is similarly played out in _Funeral Rites_ and even _Un Chant
> Amour_ -- as well as the play of _Un Chant Amour_ in Todd Haynes's
> _Poison_.  Here is a link to a brilliant essay on _Poison_ and "queer
> cinema": http://www.rochester.edu/in_visible_culture/issue1/bryson/bryson.html
>
> Thanks for your intriguing post; there is much there what needs
> further discussion, I think.
>
> As Ever, Robert ...
>
>
> Robert Summers, PhD/ABD
> Lecturer
> Art History and Visual Culture
> Otis College of Art and Design
> e: rsummers at otis.edu
> w: http://ospace.otis.edu/robtsum/Welcome
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>
>
>
> -- 
> Virginia Solomon
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