Hey hey,
I’m in film school and a part of making my thesis film involves writing a theory paper that goes along with it. My film is about two Queer autistic women falling in love. For my paper I want to use Queer Marxist theory, preferably ML, that talks about the revolutionary and liberatory potential of Queer love. How Queer love, and love in general, is oppressed through the capitalist Queerphobic patriarchy as a means of control. To discourage us from forming communities and to not feel responsible for the well-beings of other. My cishet professor told me that Marxism is only class reductionism, he specially said, “class can’t explain misogyny”, which we Queer communists of course know is ridiculous.
I’ll admit I don’t know much about Queer Marxist theory or theorists, and just Googling it doesn’t really yield any results except one random trot on tumblr. Do any of y’all have any good recommendations?
Class analysis very much so explains misogyny, Engels laid it out well over a hundred years ago how the patriarchal nuclear family has its origins in class society. It’s about the exploitation of domestic and reproductive labor which in turn reinforces and props up the exploitation of the worker in general. There have been numerous Marxist authors who have written about this since, perhaps not as many of them with a focus specifically on queer oppression as this is a newer topic, but in principle the same arguments apply as to how class based oppression intersects with gender based oppression.
Much of the framework of Marxist feminism is directly transferrable imo.
Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg
Leslie Feinberg is great. Beyond Pink and Blue also has some relevant queer marxist essays.
For a modern example - Cuba’s family code today is one of the most progressive on the planet. It’s legitimately hard to believe, especially with how broadly it defines “family”- https://nacla.org/cubas-new-family-code-window-political-ecosystem
For a more historical view - USSR decriminalized homosexuality in 1922. Later in 1934 “sodomy” was outlawed again. Here’s a letter from a british gay commie to Stalin arguing against this change, I think it’s right up your alley: https://www.marxist.com/letter-to-stalin-can-a-homosexual-be-in-the-communist-party.htm
I haven’t read enough theory to provide any sources, but I’d suggest approaching the subject from the opposite direction, how capitalism is borne from lovelessness
Capitalism grows from individualism and looking for ways to step on the weaker, and misogyny is one of the easiest avenues for that
Class explains misogyny easily, for the ruling class it’s an easy way to shift the blame, and for the working class it provides a shadow boxing target that shifts the ire from the ruling class to an apparently weaker group inside the working class
Teaching academic language to cishet professors was a mistake
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literally anything by Leslie Feinberg
seconded. prole wiki has both beyond pink and blue and transgender warriors available online.
I have a book on my shelf called Transgender Marxism by Elle O’Rourke and Jules Joanne Gleeson. I have not read it yet, but I have heard great things.
