Angry and exhausted
2005-06-15 14:24![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flexibeasti am angry and exhausted.
There's so much i want to say, but i'm so exhausted, i'm having difficulty putting my thoughts into a coherent form. But i'm going to have a go.
For a while now, i've been meaning to write a brief critique of queer assimilationism. This is the belief amongst certain queers (almost exclusively gay men, in my experience) that the best strategy to achieve queer rights is to blend in with white middle-class heteronormative society as much as possible, to show that we're not a 'threat' to that society, to show non-queers that "we're just folks", so to speak. There is so much in assimilationist politics that i disagree with that i scarcely know where to start. But the main problem for me at the moment is that i'm finding it difficult to separate the politics of assimilationist positions from the typical characteristics of the people who push such positions. They come across as white middle class men who are appalled to find that they are in the position of being in a minority, and are determined to 'get back' the privileges they feel they are entitled to. Not that they think that other queers are entitled to ask for equal rights; they often seem to suffer from EDD, and don't give a flying hoot about what happens to other queers - it's their entitlements that 'we' (i.e. all queers) must fight for first. i've had at least one gay guy tell me that the fight for the rights of bisexuals is 'expendable' - gays and lesbians come first.
So until i'm in a more rational mood, and able to avoid lacing my critique with vents against the behaviour of certain queers, i'm going to avoid writing it. Hopefully that will be in the not too distant future; we'll see what happens.
Nonetheless, part of the reason i have felt the urge to write the critique is because of my mounting frustration with the state of the queer movement(s) in Australia. Not long after the last federal election, a couple of queers put out a call for a "where to now from here"-type forum regarding building a broad campaign for queer rights, something i enthusiastically supported. A group was formed to organise such a forum; and i joined this group. However, the group ended up moving away from what i understood to be its original intent; and now we have another 'talking heads' forum with the usual 'famous' speakers. Such as Victorian Equal Opportunity Commissioner Jamie Gardiner, who, in a paper available from the Liberty Victoria Web site, entitled Gay families: the final frontier, claims that the:
And what is "the rest"? Homophobic violence, perhaps? Because something that i find particularly galling about the forum is the fact that there is nothing in the forum agenda about the issue of homophobic violence. LaTrobe University recently released the "Writing themselves in again" report, which found that homophobic assault of young people is on the rise, despite :
Well, those initiatives are apparently not working, because the 1998 report found that:
Perhaps the reason these initiatives aren't working is because there has been a failure in addressing homophobia in society in general? School-based initiatives are surely not going to achieve much if, at the end of the day, students return home to homophobic families and friends, and continue to see the mass media marginalise queers - despite the plethora of queer-friendly legislation that has been passed1.
To me, to be fighting for formal recognition of same-sex relationships, and yet failing to do something about our society's homophobia is ludicrous. If we engage in public campaigns to fight homophobia (rather than simply talking about how awful it is and how the gov'ment oughta do somethin'), isn't that more likely to create the conditions in which people will be more accepting of same-sex relationships?
Whenever i start making comments like this, people often say, "Well, stop your whinging, why don't you go out and organise these things, if you feel so strongly about them?" But you know what? i have CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME. i get exhausted just doing the washing up. And yet i have built Pleasure Activism Australia up from nothing to having almost 120 people on the email list in the space of less than a year, and despite mockery of the project from certain quarters. i strongly feel that a group like PAA is a necessity in the struggle for queer rights, since it seeks to build alliances and respect between various sexual communities, instead of walls, so that we're less divided as we face the current onslaught against sexual diversity. And i'm not only doing work via PAA; i also regularly participate in various online fora, publicly addressing sexism and queerphobia, whilst others stay silent and let it pass unremarked.
So to those people who tell me to stop whining and do something, i say: SMOG OFF - i AM doing something, to the best of my abilities. And what i'm doing is what i think we need to see more of in the campaign for queer rights: doing grassroots work, interacting with people individually, trying to actually challenge the general public's stereotypes and prejudices directly. Because grassroots campaign are what has not been happening; and society's attitudes towards queers are not only not improving2, but may in fact be getting worse.
1. For example, anti-vilification legislation. As i've noted before in various fora, such legislation doesn't really change people's attitudes - it just tells them that they're not permitted to express those attitudes in certain ways.
2. Unless you're suffering from the delusion that legislation reflects the attitudes of society in general, rather than the attitudes of the lobby groups with the most influence amongst politicians.
There's so much i want to say, but i'm so exhausted, i'm having difficulty putting my thoughts into a coherent form. But i'm going to have a go.
For a while now, i've been meaning to write a brief critique of queer assimilationism. This is the belief amongst certain queers (almost exclusively gay men, in my experience) that the best strategy to achieve queer rights is to blend in with white middle-class heteronormative society as much as possible, to show that we're not a 'threat' to that society, to show non-queers that "we're just folks", so to speak. There is so much in assimilationist politics that i disagree with that i scarcely know where to start. But the main problem for me at the moment is that i'm finding it difficult to separate the politics of assimilationist positions from the typical characteristics of the people who push such positions. They come across as white middle class men who are appalled to find that they are in the position of being in a minority, and are determined to 'get back' the privileges they feel they are entitled to. Not that they think that other queers are entitled to ask for equal rights; they often seem to suffer from EDD, and don't give a flying hoot about what happens to other queers - it's their entitlements that 'we' (i.e. all queers) must fight for first. i've had at least one gay guy tell me that the fight for the rights of bisexuals is 'expendable' - gays and lesbians come first.
So until i'm in a more rational mood, and able to avoid lacing my critique with vents against the behaviour of certain queers, i'm going to avoid writing it. Hopefully that will be in the not too distant future; we'll see what happens.
Nonetheless, part of the reason i have felt the urge to write the critique is because of my mounting frustration with the state of the queer movement(s) in Australia. Not long after the last federal election, a couple of queers put out a call for a "where to now from here"-type forum regarding building a broad campaign for queer rights, something i enthusiastically supported. A group was formed to organise such a forum; and i joined this group. However, the group ended up moving away from what i understood to be its original intent; and now we have another 'talking heads' forum with the usual 'famous' speakers. Such as Victorian Equal Opportunity Commissioner Jamie Gardiner, who, in a paper available from the Liberty Victoria Web site, entitled Gay families: the final frontier, claims that the:
public, legal recognition of gay relationships, on the same terms as statutory marriage, is the next major stage in the gay quest for freedom. I suspect that once this battle is won the rest will be just mopping up, and will be achieved by the passage of time and the passing of the most recalcitrant of our enemies: public acceptance of gay families is the last frontier.
And what is "the rest"? Homophobic violence, perhaps? Because something that i find particularly galling about the forum is the fact that there is nothing in the forum agenda about the issue of homophobic violence. LaTrobe University recently released the "Writing themselves in again" report, which found that homophobic assault of young people is on the rise, despite :
* 38% of participants reported unfair treatment on the basis of their sexuality;
* 44% reported verbal abuse and 16% reported physical abuse because of their sexuality, figures that are largely unchanged since the 1998 report; [In fact, the corresponding figures in the 1998 report are 46% and 13%, respectively - so verbal abuse has gone down slightly, but physical abuse has gone up slightly more.]
* School was the most dangerous place for young people to be with 74% of young people who were abused experiencing this abuse at school (80% young men, 48% young women).
There have been significant changes in Australian culture over the last six years. The expectations of researchers were that discrimination and abuse levels reported by young people would have dropped considerably since the 1998 study. We were particularly interested in how young people were faring in schools because this was where most of the homophobic abuse was reported occurring in the 1998 survey and also where many of the awareness-raising initiatives have been directed.
Well, those initiatives are apparently not working, because the 1998 report found that:
* Almost 70% of the abuse disclosed had taken place at school [compared to 74% in the recent study], which means that school is a more violent place for these young people than the streets.
Perhaps the reason these initiatives aren't working is because there has been a failure in addressing homophobia in society in general? School-based initiatives are surely not going to achieve much if, at the end of the day, students return home to homophobic families and friends, and continue to see the mass media marginalise queers - despite the plethora of queer-friendly legislation that has been passed1.
To me, to be fighting for formal recognition of same-sex relationships, and yet failing to do something about our society's homophobia is ludicrous. If we engage in public campaigns to fight homophobia (rather than simply talking about how awful it is and how the gov'ment oughta do somethin'), isn't that more likely to create the conditions in which people will be more accepting of same-sex relationships?
Whenever i start making comments like this, people often say, "Well, stop your whinging, why don't you go out and organise these things, if you feel so strongly about them?" But you know what? i have CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME. i get exhausted just doing the washing up. And yet i have built Pleasure Activism Australia up from nothing to having almost 120 people on the email list in the space of less than a year, and despite mockery of the project from certain quarters. i strongly feel that a group like PAA is a necessity in the struggle for queer rights, since it seeks to build alliances and respect between various sexual communities, instead of walls, so that we're less divided as we face the current onslaught against sexual diversity. And i'm not only doing work via PAA; i also regularly participate in various online fora, publicly addressing sexism and queerphobia, whilst others stay silent and let it pass unremarked.
So to those people who tell me to stop whining and do something, i say: SMOG OFF - i AM doing something, to the best of my abilities. And what i'm doing is what i think we need to see more of in the campaign for queer rights: doing grassroots work, interacting with people individually, trying to actually challenge the general public's stereotypes and prejudices directly. Because grassroots campaign are what has not been happening; and society's attitudes towards queers are not only not improving2, but may in fact be getting worse.
1. For example, anti-vilification legislation. As i've noted before in various fora, such legislation doesn't really change people's attitudes - it just tells them that they're not permitted to express those attitudes in certain ways.
2. Unless you're suffering from the delusion that legislation reflects the attitudes of society in general, rather than the attitudes of the lobby groups with the most influence amongst politicians.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-15 07:49 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-16 11:07 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-15 09:01 (UTC)that trick never works!!
Date: 2005-06-16 05:07 (UTC)plus i can't seem to do it
so i dunno who you have to be to blend in, but it's like 0.1%??!
blend in to WHAT????
no subject
Date: 2005-06-16 07:17 (UTC)As for the CFS: it's a bitch and it can be years before one recovers. you are doing as much as you possibly can so please don't be pressured into doing more than is safe for you.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-16 11:30 (UTC)In terms of the CFS: well, the difficulty for me is that i see so much that needs doing, that needs addressing. Some of those things i feel more passionately about than others; and in those cases, i often find that if i don't say or do something, no-one does. And if i don't saying or do something, even though it might physically tire me out, i'll end up feeling deeply disturbed at an emotional and intellectual level, because i'll then have failed to say or do something when it's needed. So it's all a balancing act.
Anyway, thanks for your kind words. :-)
no subject
Date: 2008-11-18 05:06 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-18 09:39 (UTC)