Philosophy

Bodies That Matter : On the Discursive Limits of 'Sex by Judith P. Butler

This book clarifies much of Foucault was saying in History of Sexuality. Butler is careful, however, to not borrow the models Foucault uses, thereby, avoids some of the mistakes and gaps that occur in his thinking, namely the silence on women. Butler, more than Foucault, is not willing to settle the debate on sexuality merely as the obtaining and disseminating of pleasures and how those bodies perform them. Rather, she takes bodies as always already gender indeterminate and destabilizes their performatives further to show how bodies are marked by gender as well as race, class, sexuality, etc. and how these categories are also destabilized within the perfomative. I highly recommend this book to feminist and queer theorists and well as anyone who is concerned about creating any sort of opposition to the reactionary right-wing forces that are attempting to further entrench their dominance over the rest of us. -- Anonymous Review

When Judith Butler describes gender as performative, contrary to much of what is mistakenly thought out there, it is not about choice! It is not about choosing to put on a gender--as if it was a performance in the traditional or obvious way. The performativity of gender is meant to suggest--invoke--that gender is constituted by performative acts which repeated come to form, take shape, a "coherent" gender identity. Thus, Butler uses the performative to suggest that this coherency is false and that because of acts that disrupt the strict reads of gender--acts that occur naturally, perhaps daily, perhaps unacknowledged, gender comes to be seen/viewed as that which is only as stable as this performative function's stability is. Or put more simply, gender-as-stable is undermined by Butler by reading it through the performative -- because it is never "performed" the same exactly. So, it is not that people can choose to perform a certain enumeration of gender, rather it is that no one precisely (actually) fulfills these gender identities that we have! -- Anonymous Review

Gay and Lesbian Philosophy Course

Course offered at the University of Maryland, College Park by Dr. Frederick Suppe, Professor of Philosophy and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher

This web site contains course information and links to lesbian and gay archives and other resources on the Web.

Inventing Queer Place:  Social Apace and the Urban Environment as Factors in the Writing of Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Histories

By Marc Greyling , B.A.(Hons)

Excerpt:

..This essay explores a way to approach the history, or histories, of urban lesbians and gay men through an understanding of the significance of queer place...

Marx's Philosophy of 'Revolution in Permanence' and the Revolutionary Queer Dimension

by Julia Jones

Excerpt:

Being a Marxist-Humanist for the past 8 years has been a voyage of endless discovery, and studying for this class has been no exception. I chose to do the sub-report for this class because the subject which fascinates me now and has always fascinated me has to do with how Marx's philosophy of revolution involves the full freedom and development of all humans and all their creative qualities. This class entitled, "Marx's Philosophy of 'Revolution in Permanence': Its Past, Present, and Future," has been organized to explore the idea of revolution without end, the ongoing struggle to Absolute Freedom, what Marx called "the absolute movement of becoming." From his early Economic-Philosophic Essays of 1844, through the great theoretical work Capital, to the final writings on pre-capitalist societies in the Ethnological Notebooks, Marx was working out new theoretical pathways to total human emancipation and searching for new Subjects of liberation who would work together to create a society where everyone can be truly free...

Offences Against One's Self

by Jeremy Bentham

First published in the 1978 summer and fall issues of Journal of Homosexuality, v.3:4(1978), p.389-405; continued in v.4:1(1978)

Editor's Abstract: This is the first publication of Jeremy Bentham's essay on "Paederasty," written about 1785. The essay which runs to over 60 manuscript pages, is the first known argument for homosexual law reform in England. Bentham advocates the decriminalization of' sodomy, which in his day was punished by hanging. He argues that homosexual acts do not "weaken" men, or threaten population or marriage, and documents their prevalence in ancient Greece and Rome. Bentham opposes punishment on utilitarian grounds and attacks ascetic sexual morality...

More on Bentham

Philosophy, Revolution and the Queer Dimension

by Julia Jones

Today I am struggling to work out the importance of dialectical methodology in revolutionary struggle, and it’s relation to the Queer movement. I am trying to do this through a back and forth between Raya’s archives column from the June 1998 issue of News & Letters called, "Practicing philosophy and revolution," and Jennifer Pen’s essay from the same issue entitled, "The Queer Left Legacy and Marxist-Humanism..."

Queer Philosophy Resources at Erratic Impact

This website features hundreds of annotated links to Queer Theory and LGBT resources, designed to assist Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people involved in academic study and philosophy research.  Erratic Impact also features hundreds of LGBT books, music and films. 

Radical Philosophy Association

Founded in 1982, RPA members struggle against capitalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, disability discrimination, environmental ruin, and all other forms of domination. We also oppose substituting new forms of authoritarianism for the ones we are now fighting. Our efforts are guided by the vision of a society founded on cooperation instead of competition, in which all areas of society are, as far as possible, governed by democratic decision-making. We believe that fundamental change requires broad social upheavals but also opposition to intellectual support for exploitative and dehumanizing social structures. Our members are from many nations and continue a variety of radical traditions including (but not limited to) feminism, phenomenology, Marxism, anarchism, post-structuralism, post-colonial theory and environmentalism. Our efforts center on conferences and publications. We consider the enterprise of radical philosophy inherently interdisciplinary and welcome persons not trained in philosophy.

We publish the Radical Philosophy Review, (RPR), a biannual journal published by E.J.Brill. The RPR includes original articles on the cutting edge of radical thought as well as reviews of the publications of RPA Members and other books of interest to radical philosophers.

We Need Resources

We are looking for essays, websites, etc., queering philosophy.  If you know of such, or have written on such, please let us know!

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