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Unstable Homophobic stereotypes describe gays and lesbians as unstable and immature; they imagine we have dysfunctional, impermanent relationships; they claim that we undermine the family. Ancient
Egypt, Two men and a woman. Funeral stele commissioned by Amenemhet. c.
2100 BC The
nuclear family is an unstable and dangerous construct that keeps its
adherents lonely and vulnerable. It is the space where elders, wives and
children are isolated and abused. Single folk are pitied and prevented
from accessing the family’s economic benefits. Shere Hite comments that
the authoritarian, patriarchal structure of the family is designed to
teach “that power and might are the most ‘real’ and important thing
in the world.”[3]
Becoming queer despite our
families of origin, we refuse this lesson. We escape the paradigm and
prove the alternative. While they look to constitute family by enforcing
gender inequalities, promoting guilt, and compelling dependencies, queers
model alternate forms of love and belonging. We create spaces of love and
support for escapees from the nuclear family blast. We do
undermine the family. Homosexuality symbolizes a principle expressed in physics by the notion of entropy. Entropy is a term for the quantity of energy unavailable for conversion into mechanical work in a thermodynamic system. The word, derived from the Greek tropē, for transformation, describes the degree of disorder or randomness in the system, and therefore, its capacity for change. Shadow: When we seek civil rights for loving same-sex couples, we need to be careful not to do so in a way that creates two classes of queer people. Stable, monogamous, domesticated, economically advantaged gays and lesbians are seen as deserving civil rights, while unstable, impoverished, young, queers of colour, activist, homeless and gender-transgressing queers are repudiated and ignored.[4] Attention to the symbolic resonances of instability encourages an alternate strategy. When we fight against the oppressions signified by the patriarchal nuclear family, we can link social, economic and environmental rights with individual civil rights. We can honour the alternate forms of love and belonging we create in queer community. Related Figures and Attributes: Abnormal, Perverse, Pedophile For more writing on this symbol, see these chapters of Orientation: Mapping Queer Meanings: Family, Conclusion, Pedophilia |
AbnormalAndrogyneAngryAnimalButchClownDecadentDepravedDiseasedDisguisedEffeminateEvilExoticFairyFriendGodlessHeroInnocentJoyousLonelyPedophilePerversePredatorSecretSensitiveStrangerSubmissiveSufferingSuperficialUnethicalUnnaturalUnstableVictimWild ManWitch
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