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minoanmissThe internet can be educational indeed. Today I learned about the concept of Homonationalism (via this video) and it is definitely a case where I noticed a concept and finally have a word for it.
I've definitely seen this in action.
1) I've seen how many countries called out by people in the US for being homophobic and therefore savage and backwards are either Muslim countries or former colonies, many of whose homophobia was installed by British rule as part of British culture. The country I have the most experience with, Jamaica, is one of the latter. Which doesn't give them a pass (I send money to J-Flag every year and am cheering them on) but it strikes me that the US doesn't really have a high ground to lecture other countries on, when we export fundamentalist Christian missionaries and implement homophobic and transphobic laws at home.
2) this is also used as a weapon within countries, at least within US society. I have seen so many times people say "Black people are homophobic" as a reason to ignore and suppress us. That accusation got thrown around a lot when Same-sex marriage wa legalized and the Voting Rights Amendment simultaneously gutted, and some of us dared to be unhappy about the latter and not just happy about the former. Also, when combined with the "Black people are all the same everywhere" idea[1], this gets woven back into "African countries are homophobic which is just one reason Black people shouldn't be allowed to run them", as in my paragraph above. Apparantly (from what little I can gather) many African cultures had important and interesting life pathways for queer people, before colonialization, but we never hear about that in the US. (But then the way Africa is taught about in the US and the UK is very politicised and geared towards justifying colonialism and slavery. I found these distortions even echoed in Jamaican pedagogy on history, which was taught by Black people for kids they identified with, let alone US pedagogy, which is still largely not developed with the benefit of Black and other children of color in mind.) And of course, under this rubric, Black people can't be queer, which is one of the two main reasons it took me so long to call myself queer. (The other being biphobia from gay and lesbian people, but that's another post.)
[1] an idea I see a lot in the US is that Black people are one dark mass without different cultures or political affiliations. For example, it underlies the idea that "Africans sold other Africans as slaves so Europeans and European-Americans are not responsible for the horrors of the slave trade." In my life I've had people tell me that slaves were done a favor by being enslaved because Africa is a single blob of backwardsness where there were no cities or cultural devlopments or, seemingly, even different countries and cultures, but now we have the opportunities to experience Western culture. Um, yay? As you can guess, I'm still annoyed by that, as much because it's a lie about African peoples' diverse and amazing cultural achievements as it's a lie about EVERYTHING ELSE.
I didn't mean for today to be Today in Politics in my journal, but these (And several other things -- did you know that treating ectopic pregnancies is about to become illegal in Missouri under the latest proposed anti-choice bill?) fell into my lap today and I had some thoughts to write down.
I've definitely seen this in action.
1) I've seen how many countries called out by people in the US for being homophobic and therefore savage and backwards are either Muslim countries or former colonies, many of whose homophobia was installed by British rule as part of British culture. The country I have the most experience with, Jamaica, is one of the latter. Which doesn't give them a pass (I send money to J-Flag every year and am cheering them on) but it strikes me that the US doesn't really have a high ground to lecture other countries on, when we export fundamentalist Christian missionaries and implement homophobic and transphobic laws at home.
2) this is also used as a weapon within countries, at least within US society. I have seen so many times people say "Black people are homophobic" as a reason to ignore and suppress us. That accusation got thrown around a lot when Same-sex marriage wa legalized and the Voting Rights Amendment simultaneously gutted, and some of us dared to be unhappy about the latter and not just happy about the former. Also, when combined with the "Black people are all the same everywhere" idea[1], this gets woven back into "African countries are homophobic which is just one reason Black people shouldn't be allowed to run them", as in my paragraph above. Apparantly (from what little I can gather) many African cultures had important and interesting life pathways for queer people, before colonialization, but we never hear about that in the US. (But then the way Africa is taught about in the US and the UK is very politicised and geared towards justifying colonialism and slavery. I found these distortions even echoed in Jamaican pedagogy on history, which was taught by Black people for kids they identified with, let alone US pedagogy, which is still largely not developed with the benefit of Black and other children of color in mind.) And of course, under this rubric, Black people can't be queer, which is one of the two main reasons it took me so long to call myself queer. (The other being biphobia from gay and lesbian people, but that's another post.)
[1] an idea I see a lot in the US is that Black people are one dark mass without different cultures or political affiliations. For example, it underlies the idea that "Africans sold other Africans as slaves so Europeans and European-Americans are not responsible for the horrors of the slave trade." In my life I've had people tell me that slaves were done a favor by being enslaved because Africa is a single blob of backwardsness where there were no cities or cultural devlopments or, seemingly, even different countries and cultures, but now we have the opportunities to experience Western culture. Um, yay? As you can guess, I'm still annoyed by that, as much because it's a lie about African peoples' diverse and amazing cultural achievements as it's a lie about EVERYTHING ELSE.
I didn't mean for today to be Today in Politics in my journal, but these (And several other things -- did you know that treating ectopic pregnancies is about to become illegal in Missouri under the latest proposed anti-choice bill?) fell into my lap today and I had some thoughts to write down.
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Date: 2022-03-12 10:56 pm (UTC)As one example, I remember back in May 2021 during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there was a Reddit thread [no, I am not on Reddit under this username] where gay people were cheering on Israel because "Palestinians would throw us off buildings". My brain broke. Sure, yeah, let's cheer on bombing civilians because you think the average person might throw you off a building. Like there's no LGBT people in Palestine at all whatsoever, and like your average person is a raging fundamentalist as opposed to someone who probably cares more about what they're having for dinner than your sex life. [Not you, personally, I mean "people, out there in the world".] I'm not going to do an analysis of the conflict over there because I'm not a war expert [and I get uncomfortable even saying this because I don't want this to be taken as antisemitism, I am not against the Jewish people, but a lot of people interpret criticism of the Israeli government's actions as antisemitism], but it just bothers me that people are that callous about Palestinian civilians dying because "oh, they're anti-LGBT".
...Somehow, these same people on Reddit aren't expressing the same callousness over Ukraine even though Ukraine doesn't have the best track record with LGBT people [though if they eventually join the EU they'll be expected to shape up some more]. I wonder why that is... 🤔 It couldn't possibly have something to do with Ukrainians being white, could it? [that was my sarcasm voice, the answer to this is "yes"]
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Date: 2022-03-13 12:15 am (UTC)Also pinkwashing, which is related but not the same thing, exactly.
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Date: 2022-03-13 12:57 am (UTC)I appreciate the link, because I am also familiar with the concept of beating colonized countries with the stick of their colonially imposed homophobia but had either not heard or not retained the name for it.
Some days are just today in politics.
*hugs*
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Date: 2022-03-13 03:02 am (UTC)HUGS.
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Date: 2022-03-13 07:22 am (UTC)This is really not intended as dismissive in any way
Date: 2022-03-13 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-13 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-13 06:33 pm (UTC)That "all the same" hogwash is not only Wrong And They Should Know Better, but if anybody said "all whites are the same" those same people would be up in arms about the essential differences between Brits and Swedes and Italians and Texans (the One True Whites, probably, in their minds). But people who spout that kind of nonsense don't tend to know words like "hypocrisy" and "logic", either. :-(