Warped : gay normality and queer anti-capitalism

460 Pages·2015·1.69 MB·English

by  Drucker

Warped: Gay Normality and Queer Anti-Capitalism
Historical Materialism
Book Series
Editorial Board
Sébastien Budgen (Paris)
Steve Edwards (London)
Marcel van der Linden (Amsterdam)
Peter Thomas (London)
VOLUME 92
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hm
Warped: Gay Normality and
Queer Anti-Capitalism
By
Peter Drucker
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Drucker, Peter, 1958–
 Warped : gay normality and queer anti-capitalism / by Peter Drucker.
  pages cm. — (Historical materialism book series, ISSN 1570-1522 ; volume 92)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-22391-2 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-28811-9 (e-book) 1. Gay rights—
Economic aspects. 2. Gays—Political activity. 3. Capitalism—Social aspects. 4. Queer theory. I. Title.
 HQ76.5.D78 2015
 306.7601—dc23
2014047084
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issn 1570-1522
isbn 978-90-04-22391-2 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-28811-9 (e-book)
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
I hear it was charged against me that I sought to destroy institutions . . .
(What indeed have I in common with them? Or what with the destruc-
tion of them?)
Only I will establish . . .
Without edifices or rules or trustees or any argument,
The institution of the dear love of comrades.
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
…
I pondered all these things, and how men [sic] fight and lose the battle,
and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat,
and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men
have to fight for what they meant under another name.
William Morris, A Dream of John Ball
…
. . . for the embattled
there is no place
that cannot be home
nor is.
Audre Lorde, ‘School Note’
∵

Contents
Preface  ix
Introduction: What’s at Stake?  1
Understanding Same-Sex Histories  41
Part 1
Origins of Gay Normality
Prologue: Before Homosexuality  71
1 Imperialism and Inversion  99
2 Fordism and Gay Identity  161
Part 2
Gay Normality Under Neoliberalism
3 Homonormativity and Queer  219
4 The Sexual Politics of Neoliberalism  279
Part 3
Challenges for a Queer Anti-Capitalism
5 Towards a Queer Sexual Politics  307
6 Queering Broader Movements  353
Conclusion: The Principle of Hope  383
References  397
Index  425

Preface
This book is meant to be both a political intervention and an empirically and
theoretically rigorous work of scholarship. Since lesbian/gay liberation and
lesbian/gay studies got started over forty years ago, the scholarly discipline has
grown enormously in scale, status and sophistication, but this kind of hybrid
of politics and scholarship has become more unusual. While many people in
queer studies today try to engage with political issues in their less academic
writings and speaking, and some persist in trying to integrate politics into
their scholarship, the warring imperatives of an academic field and of political
movements have made the combination an increasingly difficult one to pull
off. I believe the attempt remains worthwhile and important. Political engage-
ment can give scholarship a sense of proportion, focusing it on larger societal
and human stakes, rather than the sometimes arcane preoccupations of rival
academic schools. And sexual politics needs to be informed by theory and his-
tory. Otherwise mainstream sexual politics can become the prisoner of a nar-
row, complacent, conformist agenda, while radical sexual politics can despair
of change and become embittered and insular.
In this spirit, this book makes an ambitious attempt to make sense of a wide
range of other people’s discoveries (I have not undertaken original fieldwork
or research in previously untapped primary sources), and to draw conclusions
from them for activism. Others will have to judge to what extent it has suc-
ceeded. I have done my best to be empirically accurate and theoretically con-
sistent, but make no claim to academic serenity above the political fray. I also
make no claim to have the last word on any specific issue. Rather, my hope is
to stimulate dialogue and research on issues I think have been neglected in
the last few decades: especially the connections between capitalism and the
heterosexual norm, and between class and sexual politics. At certain points,
my argument takes some daring leaps over social and cultural mediations that
are vital to the links I am trying to make. I hope that others will be inspired to
try to fill these gaps, even if this means modifying my hypotheses.
Although the book has not been a collective project and its flaws are solely
my responsibility, it could never have been written or published without many
people’s help, so I have many people to thank. Thanks to the other organisers
of and participants in the International lgbt Strategy Seminars in 1998, 2000,
2002 and 2009 at the International Institute for Research and Education (iire)
in Amsterdam for stimulating discussions and helpful criticisms – especially to
Terry Conway, a comrade, co-thinker and friend for many years – to my fellow
iire lecturers and staff members for many forms of intellectual and practical
x preface
support, and to the students (all of them activists) at the iire for their enthu-
siasm, dedication and stimulating comments and questions. Several people
associated with the iire – comrades who have also become friends, notably
Gilbert Achcar, Penelope Duggan and Pierre Rousset – gave me valued encour-
agement in pursuing the politics of sexuality as part of my work as Co-Director
and later Fellow. Pierre in particular has been a model of engaged scholarship
outside the academy.
Thanks to the editors of the journal Historical Materialism for persever-
ing through the eight-year marathon that led to publication of the 2011 article
(‘The Fracturing of lgbt Identities under Neoliberal Capitalism’),1 which was,
in its turn, the starting point for this book, and which still (in revised form)
makes up much of chapter 3 in particular. Paul Reynolds set the whole pro-
cess in motion; Sebastian Budgen, Peter Thomas and the other editors of the
Historical Materialism book series gave encouragement and help at the later
stages. Two anonymous reviewers for the series made encouraging comments
and helpful suggestions. Series editor Danny Hayward has patiently, persis-
tently shepherded the book over many hurdles on the way to publication.
Simon Mussell has been a thorough and sensitive copy-editor.
This book represents among other things an attempt to fuse that 2011 article
on queer identities with earlier work – notably a 1996 article for New Left Review
and my work as editor of the anthology Different Rainbows – on lgbt identi-
ties and politics in the dependent world. Any attempt to resist the prevailing
Eurocentrism of queer studies involves a fight against steep odds – against us
hegemony in the field (a phenomenon that I try to analyse), queer studies’
continuing neglect (despite its rapidly expanding scope) of some corners of
the globe, and my own inability to keep up with everything that is published.
Crucial to this effort were the comments and criticisms of lgbt people in or
from dependent countries, who kept me alert to the Eurocentrism so often
implicit even in would-be radical queer approaches (including my own).
Special thanks are owed to David Fernbach for shepherding both the New Left
Review article and Different Rainbows from conception to completion, to the
contributors to Different Rainbows, to the Asian, African and Latin American
participants in iire sessions, and to the members of Lambda Istanbul who
took part in a discussion with me there in 2011.
Various articles of mine on lgbt history and politics over the past two
decades in various publications provided other material for this book. I have
drawn on almost all of them, but most have been so thoroughly reworked as
1  Drucker, Peter 2011, ‘The Fracturing of lgbt Identities under Neoliberal Capitalism’, Historical
Materialism, 19(4): 3–32.