Freedom, queer theory and gender studies

Dear Dino

I totally agree!!!
This is why I would refer to most of what is being created in the name of gender and queer studies as "vulgar Foucauldianism". Foucault himself was quite worried and expressed doubts about the early queer theory being developed in the early 1980s before his own tragic death (I unfortunately never had the chance to meet Foucault before he passed away, despite having many friends in common). I guess that says it all.
I know Judith Butler well and she is a great Hegelian philosopher. But I agree in your stance for Nietzsche and Spinoza and against Butler. Even Slavoj Zizek, the greatest Hegelian alive today, is much more of a Nietzschean than Butler is.
Modern gender and queer studies how much to learn from Zoroastrian culture about Zoroastrianism's long history of gender equality and its npragmtic and tolerant approach towards sexual minorities. Sure, there are extremely homphobic passages in the Vendidad and there is still quite a lot of homphobia prevalent among Parsees in India. But Zoroastrianism has one great benefit: Homophobia is NOT sanctioned within the theology itself. Especially as homophobia is strictly a moralization and incompatible with pure ethics. Zarathushtra himself would be aggressively against homphobia.
But Zoroastrians also have much to learn from queer and gender studies. Especially when it comes to learning how Zoroastrians can present their proudly socially progressive agenda to outsiders and show people that Mazdayasna has been a harbor of tolerance and curiosity towards various human expressions for over 3,700 years.

Ushta
Alexander

2008/9/28 Special Kain

- Dölj citerad text -

Dear Alexander,

Before answering your question exhaustively, let me just add that Foucault was often mistaken by many researchers in the fields of Gender and Queer Studies. He was a proto-positivist, trying to identify the mechanisms of discourses, instead of making up abstract theories (which is rather common in Queer Studies).
We can learn from Foucault (and Nietzsche) that freedom doesn't exist from the very beginning, but it's something that we can work towards. After Foucault there is a certain kind of defeatism or fatalism when it comes to power relationships - just look at Judith Butler! I truly respect her, but Foucault still believed in a realm beyond such power relationships. Thus, we can really experience more and more freedom, the more we know about how our identities come to life and how we identify with such social constructs. That's why I LOVE the word "queer" as it refers to an identity without an essence.

Kind regards, Dino

--- Alexander Bard schrieb am Sa, 27.9.2008:

Von: Alexander Bard
Betreff: [Ushta] 'Free will' vs interactive learning process (was: Being vs Becoming)
An: Ushta@yahoogroups.com
Datum: Samstag, 27. September 2008, 23:55

Dear Dino

I agree, this is MOST interesting.
Zarathushtra definitely sees us as the creators of our own freedom. This is why he emphasizes that we must identify ourselves with our thoughts, words and actions but also points out that we can affect them in advance and that we ARE precisely this very choice.
So freedom must then lie in between that which we discover that we are too ourselves and that which we could have anticipated ourselves to have become. It is never freedom in relation to anything EXTERNAL to ourselves (such as a Big Other or a God-Judge of any kind).
How did yu experience the concepts of identity and freedom during your gender studies and queer theory studies? I know Michel Foucault has had enormous influence on these fields. Foucault was a Nietzschean at heart and Nietzsche was as we all know inspired by Zarathushtra and "the dilemma of ethics and morality".

Ushta
Alexander