Theses on Queerness and the Baedlings

Part One

1

All queer philosophy has hitherto sought to maintain queerness as it currently exists. What we must do is destroy it.


2

Queerness plays a historical role in the transition out of this gendered, binary society. As we conceive of it queerness is definitely a modern invention. Homosexuality and trans sexuality have existed for a long time, but queerness as we conceive of it is a modern idea. It emerges at a stage in capitalism when capitalism begins to break down the very idea of what the self means via commodification and reification. As relations between people are covered up by relations between things, the concept of the individual begins to break down, and new, non commodified ways of viewing the self emerge. 


3

First, what do the Baedlings get right?


They are correct that we are “not interested in a social project of of queerness, in queer contributions to society, in carving out our own ghettos within capitalist life.” They are correct, in general, when they say that society must be destroyed, but are incorrect when they say that we must not posit anything positive. 


4

They are also wrong in their assumption that class society must be abolished immediately. What they fail to understand is that class society must first be reproduced (in the form of the dictatorship of the proletariat) before its opposite can come into being (communism).


5

We cannot simply reject all contemporary politics. We cannot reject this society entirely, turning our backs on it. Why? Because it is from this society that new forms of living will arise. New life will not fall from the sky like a meteor, but will rise from the earth like a volcanic eruption.


6

The revolutionary transformation of society implies the transformation of gender and gender relations. Gender relations, which form the basis of the reproduction of labor, must be totally revolutionized. 


7

The Baedlings say they don’t want to reproduce the relationship between straightness and queerness, yet, in their refusal to posit any positive political project, that is exactly what they do, for the current relations of existence cannot be overthrown by the unorganized rebellion of an angry minority, but only by the structured revolt of a class conscious majority


Part Two


8

In the Theological-Political Treatise, Spinoza argues that most of the interactions between God and his prophets occur within the realm of the imaginary. One is never truly in contact with God, but rather, always coming into contact with God. The same can be said of queer relations. Queer relations are relations of becoming, not being. Becoming-love, becoming-union, becoming-queer.


9

The imaginary is a realm of possibility, a realm on the edge of being and non-being. It is the realm of desiring-production, where the not yet existent comes into existence. This is the realm of queerness. 


10

“...we make no distinction between man and nature: the human essence of nature and the natural essence of man become one within nature in the form of production or industry, just as they do within the life of man as a species.” Anti-Oedipus

Queerness does away with the distinction between man and nature. It sweeps it aside in favor of a more holistic approach, an approach that incorporates the true bestial nature of humanity, a humanity in which all love has an ounce of bitterness, and all hatred an ounce of love. 


11

Despite this, queerness does not reject reason; rather, it affirms it as the true power of man. Reason is the tool with which all oppressive constructs shall be deconstructed, all tyrannical systems de-systemized, all artificial structures de-structured. Reason is the hammer we will use to crush our enemies. 


12

We have been alienated from reason; it has been taken from us and used to reinforce oppressive power structures such as gender, race, sexuality and class. We must seize reason and turn it against the oppressors. We must make reason ours again. 

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