Is same-sex marriage a sound possibility for homosexual and lesbian individuals? In my analysis I’m amongst those that have vociferously argued concerning the pitfalls of same-sex marriage. I, and others like me, voice our apprehensions within the unique radical spirit of “queer”. We have a look at one thing that appears so proper and interrogate it in a wierd or odd approach.
These voices are muted and their opinions battle to emerge in fashionable discourses about same-sex marriage as a result of they’re incorrectly thrown into the homophobic pot.
It’s vital to make room for “queer” concepts about same-sex marriage. “Queer” refers to anybody who’s at odds with the norm and who resists the largely white center class stereotype of “the household”.
Among the many papers I’ve written on this subject, one is triggered by the truth that the legalisation of same-sex marriage in South Africa in 2006 was greeted as a euphoric victory for quite a few homosexual and lesbian individuals and this victory was documented within the 2008 guide To Have and to Maintain: The Making of Identical-Intercourse Marriage in South Africa.
The editors of the amount argue that the varied stakeholders who supported same-sex marriage “adequately interrogated the function and performance of marriage”. I put this declare to the check and conclude that, moderately than opening an area for the “recognition of various sexualities and relationship varieties”, the Civil Union Act is restricted to these individuals who self-identify as homosexual or lesbian.
In a new paper, I argue that the literature on same-sex marriage in South Africa earlier than and after the passing of the Civil Union Act 2006, whereas acknowledging queer critique, resolves such critique in favour of the “proper” to marry. I additionally argue for the need for a queer anti-homophobic critique of same-sex marriage to broaden debates about recognition.
There may be a lot to be realized from the various variations of “nonstandard” households in South Africa, the place I reside and conduct my analysis. These variations are usually not primarily based within the fantasy of marriage and all that entails: the monogamy, the youngsters, the picket fence and the respectability. An individual wants solely to go searching precisely the place they’re and they’ll see how diversely individuals select to reside their lives.
And but the concept that same-sex marriage is in some way a type of liberation is carried via within the overwhelming majority of fashionable writing, together with that by teachers. However there’s truly a considerable amount of anti-homophobic educational and on a regular basis writing from thinkers and activists that probes the quite a few issues related to same-sex marriage.
Maybe the issue is that by questioning same-sex marriage you it may imply that you simply’re mechanically a homophobe. Nonetheless, the under-represented voices I’m referring to listed below are definitely not homophobic. Many are queer.
Queer concepts
One of many issues with same-sex marriage is that it’s, by definition, very restricted. It solely refers to self-identified homosexual and lesbian individuals and this runs in opposition to the up to date grain of society at giant which is slowly coming to phrases with the truth that id might be versatile.
The opposite downside is that the various rewards of marriage are solely out there to married homosexual and lesbian married individuals. Why can’t all these scrumptious rewards be out there to all individuals no matter their marital standing.
And at last, the fierce pro-same-sex marriage debates which are occurring everywhere in the world are so loud that they’ve drowned out centuries of important feminist views and activism on marriage.
Marriage is the place the place the state regulates the household, gender, race and patriarchy. How on earth did these truths get sidelined for a stamp of approval? Radical feminist Paula Ettelbrick requested greater than 20 years in the past:
Since when is marriage a path to liberation?
However for a lot of, same-sex marriage is a path to liberation; it’s claimed by professional similar -sex marriage activists that this act has the potential to remodel the establishments of each marriage and gender.
The truth, as social theorist Michael Warner has argued, is that married homosexual and lesbian individuals are simply as more likely to
divorce, cheat, and abuse one another as anybody else.
And, moderately than being a path to liberation, same-sex marriage offers the right device for the state to regulate and monitor who’s and who will not be respectable.
“Marriage” past the state
So what would a queer re-imagining of marriage appear like? Nothing. That’s as a result of essentially the most highly effective technique to oppose marriage is just to not get married.
Thinker and gender theorist Judith Butler famous that the duty at hand must be to “rework and revise the social organisation of friendship, sexual contacts, and neighborhood to supply non-state-centered types of assist and alliance”.
Supply By https://theconversation.com/why-same-sex-marriage-is-not-the-ultimate-tool-for-queer-liberation-103702