After 9/11, drawings of bin Laden being anally penetrated showed that the American public’s way of retaliation is to “emasculate” him through sodomy and to “turn him into a fag”. In Jasbir K. Puar and Amit Rai’s “Monster, Terrorist, Fag: The War on Terrorism and the Production of Docile Patriots”, they discuss why this kind of behavior, in a country depicted as feminist and gay safe, is accepted as an appropriate reaction to terrorism. To start to understand this, an examination of U.S. policies is needed. Queer studies should pay attention to current US-led international politics because it is a reproduction of the oppressive sexual and racial discourses that were used against other marginalized groups in history.
Sexuality is central to the
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creation of “terrorism” because the modern images of terrorists are tied to the racial and sexual monsters of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The United States classification of the terrorist is eerily similar to other “threats” the US has encountered in its history. For example, people of color, like the Chinese immigrants, the Black population, or the Muslim population after 9/11, have always been considered to be “sexual deviants” and have “failed heterosexuality”. The portrayal of Chinese men and Black men as perverts and sexual violent parallels the portrayal of Muslim men as being motivated by “the heavenly reward of sixty...even seventy virgins if they are martyred in jihad” (Puar and Rai 124). This kind of depiction devalues “the complex social, historical, and political dynamics [of Muslims]” (Puar and Rai 124) and instead reduces terrorism to sexual deviances. The categorization of the modern “monster-terrorist-fag” seems to have emerged from the marginalized figures in US history “that have always been racialized, classed, and sexualized” (Puar and Rai 124). Sexuality has always been used in oppressive discourses to marginalize people who are considered to be “threats” to United State’s power institutions. It is important for queer activists to think critically about U.S.
foreign and domestic policies because they are built on discourses that separate marginalized groups and usually do not tackle the root of the problem. Queer activists need to address the absence of intersectionality in their approach. When queer organizers discovered that a Navy bomb had “Hijack This Fags” scrawled on it, they “objected to the homophobia but not to the broader racist war itself” (Puar and Rai 127). Queer organizers zeroed in on a slur rather than the real destruction of innocent Muslim lives and the violence of the war. There seems to be an “us vs. them” mentality in current activism turns a blind eye to other marginalized groups as long as “our own” people are advancing. Furthermore, many of the foreign policies do not focus on underlying problems. For instance, the U.S. decides to combat the lack of women’s rights in Afghan by flying RAWA, a relatively privileged organization, around the world instead of focusing on helping the majority of women in Afghan that are suffering real consequences of injustices (Puar and Rai 130). Although promoting these issues is important, an emphasis on helping real Afghan women should be the
priority. The war on terror is driven by fear. This fear allows oppressive institutions to continue to portray people who are different from us as “monsters” and regulate how they should act. This forces marginalized groups to resort to becoming docile patriots and separating themselves from others to avoid the monster-terrorist categorization. We fail to see that the nation we try so hard to integrate into is the same one that is producing the discourses that claim us as different. Instead of pointing fingers at other marginalized groups, it is our job to form an intersectional coalition and fight against the underlying racist, homophobic, and sexist policies that are intertwined to suppress all kinds of people.
In Vicki L. Eaklor’s Queer America, the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the years since the 1970s gay liberation movement are described as a time of transformation and growth. The antigay movement, threatened, now more than ever, created numerous challenges and obstacles that are still prevalent today. Many of the important changes made associated with the movement were introduced through queer and queer allied individuals and groups involved in politics. Small victories such as the revision of the anti discrimination statement to include “sexual orientation”, new propositions regarding the Equal Rights Amendment and legalized abortion, were met in turn with growing animosity and resistance from individuals and groups opposed to liberal and
As much as men are working, so are women, but ultimately they do not face the same obstacles. For example, “Even if one subscribes to a solely economic theory of oppression, how can one ignore that over half of the world's workers are female who suffer discrimination not only in the workplace, but also at home and in all the areas sex-related abuse” (Moraga 98). This gives readers a point of view in which women are marginalized in the work place, at home, and other areas alike. Here Moraga gives historical accounts of Chicana feminists and how they used their experiences to give speeches and create theories that would be of relevance. More so, Moraga states how the U.S. passes new bills that secretly oppress the poor and people of color, which their community falls under, and more specifically, women. For instance, “The form their misogyny takes is the dissolution of government-assisted abortions for the poor, bills to limit teenage girls’ right to birth control ... These backward political moves hurt all women, but most especially the poor and "colored." (Moraga 101). This creates women to feel powerless when it comes to control one’s body and leads them to be oppressed politically. This places the government to act as a protagonist, and the style of writing Moraga places them in, shines more light to the bad they can do, especially to women of color. Moraga uses the words, “backward moves”
Historian David Carter, provides an intriguing in-depth look into the historical impact of the Stonewall Riots in Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution. This engaging book adds to the genre of sexual orientation discrimination. Carter extensively analyzes the various factors that played a role in igniting the Stonewall riots and the historical impact that the riots had on the Gay Revolution and movement for gay equality. Through the use of interviews, newspapers, and maps, Carter argues that the riots were a product of many geographical, social, political, and cultural factors. Carter further argues that the riots ultimately led to the forming of the Gay Revolution and caused sexual orientation to be a protected category in the growing movement for civil rights. Carter’s book provides a well-structured argument, supported mainly by primary evidence, into the different factors that contributed to the riots as well as a detailed account of the events that transpired during the riots and the political attitudes towards homosexuality in America during this time.
Host: On September the 11th 2001, the notorious terror organisation known as Al-Qaeda struck at the very heart of the United States. The death count was approximately 3,000; a nation was left in panic. To this day, counterterrorism experts and historians alike regard the event surrounding 9/11 as a turning point in US foreign relations. Outraged and fearful of radical terrorism from the middle-east, President Bush declared that in 2001 that it was a matter of freedoms; that “our very freedom has come under attack”. In his eyes, America was simply targeted because of its democratic and western values (CNN News, 2001). In the 14 years following this pivotal declaration, an aggressive, pre-emptive approach to terrorism replaced the traditional
The prejudice of both modern military policy and the Salem witch trials is built on the misconceptions and stereotypes of the accused. The belief that gay men are feminine shorts-wearing, roller skaters invested with AIDS [McGowan 13] and the perceived image of a sex-driven gay contrasts the military’s “bastion of...
Brown, A. Widney., and LaShawn R. Jefferson. "VI. ILLUSTRATIVE CASES." Afghanistan, Humanity Denied: Systematic Denial of Women's Rights in Afghanistan. New York, NY.: Human Rights Watch, 2001. 16+. Print
After the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, there has been a reemergence of comparisons between the events of Pearl Harbor and the terrorist attacks in New York. Although the timing of when Band of Brother’s was released on HBO was a poorly planned to the attacks in New York, it could be argued that the United States government was able to use the images found within Band of Brothers for their own agenda to push for a War on Terror. Band of Brothers has representations of brotherhood and an image of a masculine American soldier, which could be used by the government to push for going to war in the Middle East. In order to display a masculine American soldier, it could be argued that there needs to be a representation of an ethnic America
September 11th. In Colorado, school officials demonstrate the new rush to suppress any un- American sentiment by “forcing a student to remove an upside down American flag sewn on the seat of her jeans [calling it] an obscene insult to Americanism” (Leo). Blinded by their patriotism, these school officials disregarded the student’s first amendment rights. This same eagerness to attack free-speakers also occurred at the University of New Mexico. In this highly publicized incident, Prof Richard Berthold told his class “Anyone who can blow up the Pentagon has my vote” (Leo). Upon hearing such an outrageous statement, many Americans are demanding the professor be suspended or fired. Americans’ post September 11t...
Throughout the years, homosexuals have been the targets of embarrassment, harassment, and criticism from society. The most dominant and publicized way this is shown is by the ban on gays and lesbians in the military. We are one of few countries that forbid homosexuals to serve in their country’s armed forces. Germany, Japan, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Spain, and many other dominant countries in the world allow and encourage everyone in their culture to fight for their country. (Hogan and Hudson 185) We are actually hurting our country’s military by forcing possible volunteers to stay home and watch the news when they could be fighting for our country, just because of their sexuality. It is so ridiculous that letters are sent out to recruit U.S. men to fight in the army, but they wouldn’t accept you if you are not a...
It would be misguided to discuss queer prison abolitionist movements without first thoroughly examining the place of the prison system in the neoliberal imperial project of enemy production (both inside and outside the boundaries of the state). The contemporaneous production of exterior and interior enemies (terrorists and criminals respectively), movement toward and legislation for ostensible (and, importantly, homonormative) queer “equality,” the criminalization of radical activism through increased surveillance, torture, disappearance, and imprisonment, and the exponential growth in the transnationally funded prison system is symptomatic of what, in the article “Intimate Investments,” Anna M. Agathangelou, M. Daniel Bassichis, and Tamara L. Spira deem the “imperial project(s) of promise and nonpromise” (Agathangelou, Bassichis, and Spira 120). Agathangelou, Bassichis, and Spira argue that, inherently a part of empire’s promises to some groups of safety and inclusion in global capitalism is a process of othering by which other groups are constructed as “enemy others,” and by which yet other groups are rendered “‘other Others’ whose life and death do not even merit mention or attention” (123). At the heart of this process lies the imperialist drive to establish and protect the new world order via what M. Jacqui Alexander deems the process of “incorporation and quarantining” (Alexander qtd. in Agathangelou, Bassichis, and Spira 127). This process serves the imperialist ends of militarization by constructing “enemies” which must be contained and/or killed; it also provides a backdrop against which newly legitimized homonormative queer identities can be conceptualized. In other words, by creating classes of racially sexualized...
What is liberation if we are not allowing people to be themselves? To be complex and paradoxical at times? To be fundamentally human? To exist? To be diverse representations of themselves? To transgress beyond defined spaces both imagined and unimagined and social constructs that cultivate oppression? The book Exiled for Love, by the author Ashram Parsi, addresses the contemporary phenomenon that takes a toll on the various forms of discrimination which Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, heterosexual and all other sexual identities encounter in modern day Iran. In addition to such forms of discrimination, which include severe exploitation, torture, and imprisonment, the book addresses the dilemma of gendered violence and intersectionality. Likewise,
“The unprecedented growth of the gay community in recent history has transformed our culture and consciousness, creating radically new possibilities for people to ‘come out’ and live more openly as homosexuals”(Herdt 2). Before the 1969 Stonewall riot in New York, homosexuality was a taboo subject. Research concerning homosexuality emphasized the etiology, treatment, and psychological adjustment of homosexuals. Times have changed since 1969. Homosexuals have gained great attention in arts, entertainment, media, and politics. Yesterday’s research on homosexuality has expanded to include trying to understand the different experiences and situations of homosexuals (Ben-Ari 89-90).
The unprecedented terrorist attacks at the key economic, political, and military power centers in the United States on September 11, 2001 led to immediate restrictive measures among states in the global north and the international community as a whole. The perceived unprecedented threat of international terrorism had to be confronted with nothing less than a global “war on terrorism”. As a nation, Americans were born fighting; therefore, Americans will stop at nothing to protect their rights in the nation. Citizens who condone this type of patriotism – those who condone violence inflicted upon other nations other than their own show that they are complicit with a terrorist regime. The Reluctant Fundamentalist, written by Mohsin Hamid, resonates
She notes it is important in order to make queer really work, it must challenge heteronormative oppression through many intersections including sexuality, race, gender, and economic class. Cohen discusses one of the reasons why queer theory has been unable to effectively challenge heteronormativity, stating that queer politics has often been built around a dichotomy between those who are queer and those who are straight. She states, "Very near the surface in queer political action is an uncomplicated understanding of power as it is encoded in sexual categories: all heterosexuals are represented as dominant and controlling and all queers are understood as marginalized and invisible...some queer activists have begun to prioritize sexuality as the primary frame through which they pursue their politics" (Cohen, 440). While acknowledging that certain parts of our identity may be highlighted to call attention to a certain situation, she warns against activating only one characteristic of an identity or a single perspective of consciousness when organizing politics (Cohen, 440). Cohen advises against activating solely one characteristic of an identity or a single perspective of consciousness when organizing
When one hears the words “LGBT” and “Homosexuality” it often conjures up a mental picture of people fighting for their rights, which were unjustly taken away or even the social emergence of gay culture in the world in the 1980s and the discovery of AIDS. However, many people do not know that the history of LGBT people stretches as far back in humanity’s history, and continues in this day and age. Nevertheless, the LGBT community today faces much discrimination and adversity. Many think the problem lies within society itself, and often enough that may be the case. Society holds preconceptions and prejudice of the LGBT community, though not always due to actual hatred of the LGBT community, but rather through lack of knowledge and poor media portrayal.