Extracts From...
Uses of anger in queer theory and activism
Goldsmiths 2020
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These are extracts of an essay in response to the question 'Why have some feminist, queer and trans theorists focused on the political potential of emotions (such as hate, rage and shame) that have often been understood as negative or destructive?'.
‘Social movements, as projects in world-making, offer insights that are easily forgotten in periods when social transformation seems impossible, at best distant.’ (Gould, 2009, p. 179).
Has neo-liberalism led to the death of queer anger and activism, and it’s right to exist? How can we now generate more vigor to ‘be angry at state and society, to embrace confrontational tactics, to be in-your-face-queer.’ (Gould, 2009, p. 188).
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George Monbiot describes neo-liberalism in his article for The Guardian (2016):
‘So pervasive has neoliberalism become that we seldom even recognise it as an ideology. We appear to accept the proposition that this utopian, millenarian faith describes a neutral force; a kind of biological law, like Darwin’s theory of evolution. But the philosophy arose as a conscious attempt to reshape human life and shift the locus of power.’ (Monbiot, 2016)
Neo-liberalism was designed with the intention to shift power towards certain people. Inequality becomes just, and is (ironically) is cast as a sort of equalizer; as ‘the market ensures everyone gets what they deserve’ (Mombiot, 2016). This thoroughly diminishes any activist feelings of ‘power to the people’, which attempt to confront inequalities in direct and defiant activism. Instead of taking part in ‘in your face’ activism, we buy what we stand for instead. Here in lies the trap that capitalist neo-liberalism has set up for us.
The ACT UP “quarantine camp” float at New York City's Gay Pride March, June 28, 1987.
Photo credit: Donna Binder.
Many marginalised people in the LGBTQ+ community experience systematic oppression and violence, and there needs to be dedicated and effective activism to change this. …. How can the LGBTQ+ community use their strength as a collective, to fight the injustice of the most marginalised in the community? How can we feel the anger, not for ourselves, but for others within the community? How can queers fight against a neo-liberal, capitalist, right-wing, post-truth agenda today? How can we action what Lorde tell us in; “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” (Lorde, 2017, p. 117).
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We must be angry about our queer siblings in situations of subjugation, violence and oppression. We must get on the streets. Place our queer bodies on the street. Put ourselves on the front line.
We will never be silent again. Act Up- Fight Back - Fight Now.
Citations
Gould, D. B. 2009. Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP's Fight against AIDS. Chicago and London: The University Chicago Press.
Monbiot, G. 2016. Neo-liberalism - the ideology at the root of all our problems. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot
(Accessed 10 March 2020).
Lorde, A. 2017. Uses of Anger. In: Your Silence Will Not Protect You. Silver Press, pp. 107 - 118.