[lbo-talk] Butler on feminist theory/queer theory

[Chris Sturr]

That interview was from 1993 or so, and the Routledge Lesbian and Gay
Studies Reader she mentions includes Gayle Rubin's article "Thinking Sex,"
which stakes out a claim that radical study of sexuality should be distinct
from feminism.  Rubin says that on the basis of the anti-sex positions many
(or most?) feminists were taking in the 80s.  I think Rubin's article is
fantastic--well worth reading--though I agree with what Butler says in that
interview that it would be a mistake to separate radical studies of
sexuality from feminism (though I see why Rubin might have thought it
necessary to do so around 1990).  Beyond this, I don't know exactly what
Butler had in mind when she said that queer theory could sometimes be
anti-feminist (but maybe Rubin's article was all she had in mind).

While I'm dipping my toe into the discussion:  Did I miss it, or did no one
respond to the argument someone made here that Ahmadinejad's claim that
there are no homosexuals in Iran is basically true, on Butlerian and
Foucaultian grounds?  I hope someone responded to that, because it seems
pretty ridiculous to me.  When people in his audience at Columbia U. (where
I think he made that claim) burst out laughing, I think their laughter might
have had more to do with a liberal U.S. audience's assumption that
homosexuality (and heterosexuality) are transhistorical, universal, etc. But
nevertheless it seems ridiculous to claim that Iran (a country with at least
a history of a Westernized middle class) is so culturally isolated that
there really are no homosexuals (i.e., people who identify as homosexuals).
Are there no leftists either, or liberals, or fans of Harry Potter, or of
punk rock?

--Chris


>
> Message: 16
> Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:59:14 -0400
> From: Seth Ackerman <sethackerman1 at verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Butler on feminist theory/queer theory
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Message-ID: <484EDD12.6030703 at verizon.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Dennis Claxton wrote:
> > I have some problems here, because I think there's some anti-feminism
> > in queer theory.
>
> Dennis, could you fill in what she's talking about? (Or anyone else.)
> What's the anti-feminism in queer theory?
>
> Seth
>
>
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> End of lbo-talk Digest, Vol 528, Issue 5
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-- 
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Chris Sturr
Co-editor, Dollars & Sense
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