Political Bodies

Critical Response #3

As I began to think about how I wanted to tie together the readings from GLQ to the Virgie Tovar interview, I must admit I at first felt a little perplexed. Why would a woman of color tackling fatphobia, among many other systems of oppression, be assigned alongside articles deeply analyzing the relationship between queer theories and native studies? I knew there had to be a connection because the readings in weeks prior were so carefully orchestrated to illuminate a particular theme. Now, I try not to look at the themes outlined in our syllabus, because then it inherently directs my writing both consciously and subconsciously.  I prefer my critical responses come from a raw place; a place that is actively processing and weaving that knowledge into what I’ve already stored inside myself. It is through this process that I usually instinctually arrive at a variation of the theme in the syllabus that is unique my own.  As I was sitting here sipping my, at this point cold, chai tea, something Tovar said came pulsing through my memory.  Now I am paraphrasing, but she said her work was inherently political because of the body she inhabits. When people engage with her work they are also engaging with her body as a political entity. Her work is not political merely because she is writing about sex or about liking breasts a whole a lot, it is deeply political because she is a fat woman talking about sex and liking breasts a whole lot (which I would just like to say is pretty badass).  In our culture, specific bodies are politicized in very violent ways as Foucault says, “power is situated and exercised at the level of life, the species, the race, and the large-scale phenomena of the population,” (1990, pp. 137). The body we inhabit determines what we are allowed to say, and what spaces both political and geographical that we are allowed to occupy. By not putting two-spirit and queer of color critiques at the forefront of queer theories and discourse, by silencing and forgetting the most untold narratives we risk perpetuating this very same system. As Adrea Smith illuminates, “U.S. exceptionalism, in which a white queer subject reinscribes heteronormativity by positioning himself/herself in an imperialist relationship to those ethnic subjects deemed unable to transgress,” (2010). Therefore perhaps white queers are not the best people to move the LGBTQ+ movement forward, as our critiques often fail to queer the entire system enough.  The foundation and history of systems that oppress white LGBTQ persons are lost when the sole focus is on sexual identities, or marriage equality, which in one vein just assimilates queers into already existing idea of the nuclear family.  We must never forget it is this family structure is inherently interwoven with heteropatriarchy that has been historoically an enormous source of violence as, “when colonists first came to the Americas, they saw the necessity of instilling patriarchy in Native communities because they realized that indigenous peoples would not accept colonial determination if their own indigenous societies were not structured on the basis of social hierarchy. Patriarchy in turn, rests on a gender-binary system; hence it is not a coincidence that colonizers also targeted indigenous peoples who did not fit within this binary model,” (Smith, 2010). When we make space for bodies of color, for fat bodies, for indigenous bodies to not only enter the space of queer discourse, but lead, it intersectionalities illuminate in ways that were previously not possible. But Two-Spirit discourse does not stop at just this illumination, they move, “beyond a concept of intersectional politics.  Though intersections do take place in doubleweaving, the weaving process also creates something else: a story much more complex and durable than its original and isolated splints, a story both unique and rooted in ancient and during form,” (Driskill, 2010). As a movement we need these highly politicized bodies to constantly critique and reveal origins and connections between history, institutions, and the present day agenda.