Bravo. You are doing a yeoman’s service reading, summarising and popularising this content. I recall first coming across the phrase “the queering of everything” in about 2017 as part of some reading about Judith Butler I was doing trying to understand the transgender craze that was sweeping the globe and infecting Australian politics through the “Yes” campaign for same sex marriage ... having just read through the bulk of the WPATH files, it’s so obvious now that healthcare has been sufficiently “queered” to the point not just of absurdity but outright predatory, clinical violence aimed at vulnerable, neurodiverse and brainwashed children anxious to belong to whatever the hell modernity embraces. Keep it up, you are fast becoming one of the more important substacks out there.
Thanks Unbekoming. I remember talking to people about some of this two decades ago after seeing a report from Switzerland or Sweden (cannot remember now which) that all toddlers there would henceforth be referred to as "chicks" (as in baby chickens), letting them choose their gender when they got older.
The book, while pointing out some zealous self-protective overcompensations by queer communities and theorists that do exist in small tolerable quarters, is quite apparently a fear-mongering screed. Being queer gay or whatever, used to be highly contested and even dangerous. Just because it is becoming normalized ( with social acceptance and safety for queers ( which I am not, incidentally) with the help of activists and “queer theorists” does not suddenly make it an evil to be battled and challenged. All theoretical schools have extremism factions. Just take extremist capitalism for example, now there’s a scourge I can’t get behind. Yes children are gullible and yes some school boards and teachers go to far ( usually for personal reasons), but attacking queer theory at its core is stupid and ignorant, and and yes, homophobic.
Perhaps. But all the gays and lesbians I know- many close friends, use their identity terms interchangeably with queer, without reference to any theory ( which I can’t deny has academic origins as a term- don’t know), and some are in academia. Perhaps its use varies regionally. Foucault was instrumental in instrumentalizing queer studies, before it entered curricula. ( he was also a pediphile, but that’s not relevant to most gays I know. “Queer” as reclaimed by actual self-identified queers, as with any reclaimed term have the right to use the term as they choose. It frames their social identity, an identity which obsesses many of them (because of prior exclusions), just like I identify as an artist and you as a writer- it’s a way of life. Straight society can have their own use of the term but they don’t get to take it back from the queers and circumscribe its meaning ( and historicity) for them. As a side note ideologies advancing the breakup of the family are probably as old as the enlightenment. RD Laing psychiatrist took up the position with members of the counterculture in the late 60’s as they were repositioning their identities via a via the nuclear family. It was provocative but not final. The idea was not to end the family but to he soon abandoned the practice- everyone was out of their heads with crazy ideas back then, having lost their tethers to established institutions ( which were inevitably crumbling as a generation came of age) but the family and sexual identity are worth reexamining- if not disassembling. It’s part of the spiralling evolutionary path of society, a notion which many social conservatives can’t grok …..Interesting essay. Thanks for posting your perspective.
Bravo. You are doing a yeoman’s service reading, summarising and popularising this content. I recall first coming across the phrase “the queering of everything” in about 2017 as part of some reading about Judith Butler I was doing trying to understand the transgender craze that was sweeping the globe and infecting Australian politics through the “Yes” campaign for same sex marriage ... having just read through the bulk of the WPATH files, it’s so obvious now that healthcare has been sufficiently “queered” to the point not just of absurdity but outright predatory, clinical violence aimed at vulnerable, neurodiverse and brainwashed children anxious to belong to whatever the hell modernity embraces. Keep it up, you are fast becoming one of the more important substacks out there.
Thanks Unbekoming. I remember talking to people about some of this two decades ago after seeing a report from Switzerland or Sweden (cannot remember now which) that all toddlers there would henceforth be referred to as "chicks" (as in baby chickens), letting them choose their gender when they got older.
Coming after the children and a path to normalization of pedophilia. That's always been the goal.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/james-lindsay-and-logan-lancing-expose-the-truth-behind-queer-theory-5646229
The book, while pointing out some zealous self-protective overcompensations by queer communities and theorists that do exist in small tolerable quarters, is quite apparently a fear-mongering screed. Being queer gay or whatever, used to be highly contested and even dangerous. Just because it is becoming normalized ( with social acceptance and safety for queers ( which I am not, incidentally) with the help of activists and “queer theorists” does not suddenly make it an evil to be battled and challenged. All theoretical schools have extremism factions. Just take extremist capitalism for example, now there’s a scourge I can’t get behind. Yes children are gullible and yes some school boards and teachers go to far ( usually for personal reasons), but attacking queer theory at its core is stupid and ignorant, and and yes, homophobic.
Queer is a technical and academic description, it doesn't mean gay.
In fact, Queer Theory is anti-homosexual (it doesn't believe that it exists), which actually makes it homophobic.
I can only suggest you read the book.
Perhaps. But all the gays and lesbians I know- many close friends, use their identity terms interchangeably with queer, without reference to any theory ( which I can’t deny has academic origins as a term- don’t know), and some are in academia. Perhaps its use varies regionally. Foucault was instrumental in instrumentalizing queer studies, before it entered curricula. ( he was also a pediphile, but that’s not relevant to most gays I know. “Queer” as reclaimed by actual self-identified queers, as with any reclaimed term have the right to use the term as they choose. It frames their social identity, an identity which obsesses many of them (because of prior exclusions), just like I identify as an artist and you as a writer- it’s a way of life. Straight society can have their own use of the term but they don’t get to take it back from the queers and circumscribe its meaning ( and historicity) for them. As a side note ideologies advancing the breakup of the family are probably as old as the enlightenment. RD Laing psychiatrist took up the position with members of the counterculture in the late 60’s as they were repositioning their identities via a via the nuclear family. It was provocative but not final. The idea was not to end the family but to he soon abandoned the practice- everyone was out of their heads with crazy ideas back then, having lost their tethers to established institutions ( which were inevitably crumbling as a generation came of age) but the family and sexual identity are worth reexamining- if not disassembling. It’s part of the spiralling evolutionary path of society, a notion which many social conservatives can’t grok …..Interesting essay. Thanks for posting your perspective.