On "pinkwashing"

"One of the most remarkable features of the Brand cultured campaign is the marketing of the modern nation-state as gay-friendly. One of the organisations has been quoted ... as saying: "We decided to improve the country's image through its gay community." This "pinkwashing", as it is now commonly termed in activist circles, has currency beyond specific gay groups. Within global gay and lesbian organising circuits, to be gay friendly is to be modern, cosmopolitan, developed, first-world, global north, and, most significantly, democratic."

J. Puar on "pinkwashing" and politics. Full article: guardian.co.uk/july01

Note: Original words have been replaced with words in italics in order to remove "pinkwashing" from its embedding in specific geographical space, and treating it as a "thing in itself ... a relational system."

Intertextuality

Last week, I attended a fantastic presentation by O. Segal, doctoral candidate in Near Eastern Studies at the University. Segal's talk was a comparative essay on two recent exhibitions (2001, 2007) on Independence Park, a cruising place in T. Aviv. Both works were attempts to challenge the conventional representations of this park as a dark cruising site, and critique the everyday reduction of sexuality to sickness, something unnatural and illicit. Specifically, the 2001 exhibition aimed to present the park as a beautiful place – showcasing the site in broad daylight (emphasis edded), with identifiable actors, in their everyday wear and beautiful postures. It sought to legitimize the space by describing it as a site where gays openly exercise their sexuality. The 2007 work, in comparison, exhibited the park as a natural site with emphasis on its flora, animal life and colorful sunsets. It downplayed the sexual context of the park only to universalize the space, and place it in the context of natural (read normal) geographies. Segal's close readings of the images, however, revealed an interesting trap. By way of intertextuality, he argued that despite each exhibition's attempts to "depoliticize" the park, the exhibits referred back to queer culture and made implicit references to homosexuality and its deep embedding in space - both physical and social.

The trap notwithstanding, I felt, Segal's critical use of art history to illuminate the queer context ultimately also helped historicize, naturalize, intellectualize, militarize and regionalize the park and its spatio-sexual dialectic. The exhibitions in and of themselves might have failed in naturalizing the environs, but Segal's work offered a perfect rethinking of the park with all its contradictions.

Patriarchy Revisited

From the film: Mirch Masala (1985) by Ketan Mehta

The Bell Bajao (Ring the Bell!) Campaign is Breakthrough's new and growing campaign to help bring to our attention the grossness of domestic violence in India. It encourages people, especially men and young boys to become involved in this project, and to help bring any form of ongoing physical, psychological, sexual or financial violence within families to halt. The campaign blog is currently carrying a heart wrenching story on an otherwise archaic yet enduring evil practice in Indian society - the marriage of the girl-child. Entitled, "Without a Whimper," and penned ever so thoughtfully by dear friend Aham, it hits us exactly where we live - between the head and the heart.

The abuse of the girl-child in the name of marriage is infuriating and unpardonable. The practice needs to be condemned, but more importantly, it needs to be examined in the context of patriarchy - what it produces and who it privileges. Here is my provocation: patriarchy has its roots in the concept of man as the provider, and woman as the producer. This binary has traditionally privileged man who impregnates and provides the seed for the growth of family, and the male-child, who upon growing up is expected to then provide for the family, in economic terms, even if that means trading his own girl-child. Sadly, as a producer, the girl is considered nothing but a commodity - interchangeable in the market controlled by men.

What we need is to challenge our binary thinking, go beyond the dichotomies of provider-producer, and think of the body as one doing both irrespective of gender and/or sex. Quite in the humanist Marxist sense, production needs to be looked at as both mental (creative) and material (bodily), and their constant interactions in real time-space. Both men and women contribute to this in unique ways. It is in this context that they are also both different and equal. Notwithstanding the tensions between them, this perspective at least offers them the much desired equal footing, for presently even the founding plane has little room for the girl-child growing-up.

India, bell bajao!

Quote

On identity, J. Butler speaks my mind:
"Yes, I am lesbian, I am gay but do I subscribe to everything that the gay movement says? Do I always come out as a lesbian and gay person first before say, I am a woman or before I am Jew or before I am an American or a citizen or a philosopher ... No, it's not the only identity. So these are communities where one belongs and one does not belong and it seems to me we travel, I travel ..." (Judith Butler, 2006).

Opening thoughts from a documentary on American post-structuralist philosopher Judith Butler entitled, "Judith Butler: philosophe en tout genre," ARTE, 2006. The Interview is in English with subtitles in French. You can also watch parts of this film on YouTube: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6.

The Debate Diagrammed

Timeline to the changes in Same-Sex Marriage Laws in the US [source: Good Magazine]



"Patrick Farley, one of the great webcomics creators, has a sharp editorial cartoon up -- a flowchart explaining the gay marriage debate" [source].

Let's talk about SEX

Source: Bottom Monologues Project

I am thrilled to read of yet another accomplishment of my blogpal and fellow A2ite, Trevor Hoppe. I would like to describe Trevor as a radical LGBT activist and researcher, working in the realm of gay men’s health and sexual behavior.

What's special is that his work has been featured in this month’s Guide Magazine. The story, entitled “The bottom monologues” introduces Trevor’s multi-work and discusses in particular his most recent online project by the same name - on stories about gay, bi-, or trans- bottoms, to be part of a future performance. “The stories included in The Bottom Monologues are about creating a method for discussion that’s fun and exciting and able to reach a number of people who might not otherwise be open to frank discussions of sexuality.” (Hoppe T. in Amico, M., Guide, March 09). At the bottom of it all, Trevor wants gays to talk honestly about their sex choices.

Congratulations, Trevor!
Trevor’s weblog is as interesting space for both intellectual and intoxicating encounters! Read this story and more at TrevorHoppe.com - Guide Magazine Feature of My Work!

Born Free-Born Natural II

Excerpt source: For the Bible Tells Me So (2007) - a film exploring the intersections of sexuality and religion. I know many of us have seen this film and some of us have even bookmarked this cartoon story; nevertheless I thought of sharing it with my readers since in my previous post, I discussed the "choice" question. I think the creative story-telling idea is brilliant. However, there is a slight glitch. Notice how the gay and the lesbian protagonists are represented, especially Martha.

My question - Can we alongside, also fight gay stereotypes please? To visit the film's website, click here.

Embedding Sexuality in Text

At times the blogosphere can be a space of bizarre encounters and correspondences. This morning, a reader commented on my way of writing. He said, “(…) I didn’t know you were gay. I thought you’d be a girl or something looking at the way you write (…) Your writing [and nature of argumentation] gives your readers hint that you are somewhat girlie, delicate and feminine”.

Two successive moments formed my reaction to this comment -
Moment 1: OMG! Never before had anyone made such heterosexist remark on my writing and opining. In the past, I had people comment on my handwriting and label it as “beautiful, neat and feminine”; but this! was totally uncalled for.
Moment 2: Interesting! If words and thoughts are inseparable and writing is a way of thinking, then does that also mean we map our identities (knowingly or unknowingly) in our written expressions? Is a person’s writing marked and defined by her/his sexuality? These questions have given me a pause for thought.

Let us recall the number of times we’ve tried to gauge the sex of a person [sic] by simply reading a little abstract of his/her work. Let us recall those many moments when we have asked ourselves, if the protagonist of this book is gay, is the author gay too? I guess the question of most interest to me right now is that if sexuality is an invisible trait (Shilts, 1987) how do we make it visible in our expressions – written, oral and/or other? And is this visibility “out there” or is it layered and in need of some deep analysis?

About

This blog is built around what I call the socio-sexual debate, meaning the simultaneously coexisting conditions of human society and human sexuality but in a constant state of inner conflict and pressing debate. Society here is referred to at the level of both the individual and the overarching system; while sexuality is discussed at all levels, including but not limited to straight, gay, bi-, trans-, inter-, queer, questioning and their subcultures.

My blog will attempt to document, map and extend a discussion on the interaction of each these human variables. It will also seek to probe the nature of human society through the lens of sexuality and its meaning in a world – which on one hand is becoming increasingly plural and accommodating while on the other hand and in some instances, is continuing (or newly adopting) to live on archaic, provincial and parochial laws. Between the dialectics of the social-sexual, love-fear and plurality-insularity, I am hopeful that this space will generate healthy conversations on issues of concern to all. The outreach potential of this initiative goes without saying.

On that note, let the conversations continue.