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Fetishism

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The contributors to Long Term use the tension between the popular embrace and legalization of same-sex marriage and the queer critique of homonormativity as an opportunity to examine the myriad forms of queer commitments and their durational aspect. They consider commitment in all its guises, particularly relationships beyond and aside from monogamous partnering. These include chosen and involuntary long-term commitments to families, friends, pets, and coworkers; to the care of others and care of self; and to financial, psychiatric, and carceral institutions. Whether considering the enduring challenges of chronic illnesses and disability, including HIV and chronic fatigue syndrome; theorizing the queer family as a scene of racialized commitment; or relating the grief and loss that comes with caring for pets, the contributors demonstrate that attending to the long term offers a fuller understanding of queer engagements with intimacy, mortality, change, dependence, and care. Contributors. Lisa Adkins, Maryanne Dever, Carla Freccero, Elizabeth Freeman, Scott Herring, Annamarie Jagose, Amy Jamgochian, E. Patrick Johnson, Jaya Keaney, Heather Love, Sally R. Munt, Kane Race, Amy Villarejo, Lee Wallace
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This commentary offers a concise description of the structure revealed in the discourse about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but that also serves as a condition of the possibility for such events to happen. The points of view that this structure provides are relational, interdependent, and mutually constructed, and they are labeled as the Citizens, the Authorities, and the People. All these positions are structured in such a way that provides their subjects with a source of enjoyment. The positions can be described as follows: fetishism of the Citizens, who almost invent their guilt without being held responsible; sadism of the Authorities, whose urge to make more and more atrocious decisions demand to repeatedly dismiss or shift the blame; masochism of the People, who accept their responsibility for anything without having a clear idea about the contents of decisions that were made in their name. In regards to communal guilt, it is crucial to take this level of enjoyment into account, in order to refuse sinking into emotions and avoiding using the language of guilt and shame. However, to simply switch to the language of understanding and responsibility instead is not enough. The language we need to seek is the one that would allow us to directly address the inadequacy of this distorted political arrangement—not some kind of metalanguage, but, on the contrary, a common language.
Article
The conceptualization of taboo within international relations (IR)—that is, what we understand to be taboo—is inadequate. Specifically, current analysis fails to sufficiently distinguish between taboo and non-taboo forms of prohibitory norm, where this failure often facilitates a tendency (explicit or implicit) to comprehend the concept primarily in terms of actor compliance with a taboo in question. This understanding is shown here to be analytically unrepresentative and that it sets unrealistic expectations for actor behavior, especially where those expectations are then employed as the foundation of quantifiable conceptual comprehension and study within IR. In response to this critical need for a new understanding of taboo relevant to IR, the article constructs an original analytic model based on disgust, stigmatization, and fetishization. The article additionally outlines the conceptual and methodological implications of adopting this new model, including where it subsequently demonstrates that taboos are more prevalent and more influential than certain sectors of the IR discipline have previously given them credit for.
Article
This article begins by identifying the demand for “masc” in gay male digital cultures as a repressive phenomenon. Drawing on a key queer alt-right text by Jack Donovan in which “masc” is explicitly theorized, it shows that its disciplinary logic is distinct from homonormativity. The homo/hetero binary is explicitly rejected, and the perverse structure is weaponized as a repressive mechanism suited to a postnormative environment. Under these conditions, critiques of normativity and homonationalism are unable to provide an effective counter because the subjects they address have stopped caring. The article describes perverse homogenization processes as “homotribalism,” arguing that they provide an erotic basis for ethnonationalism. It then provides a detailed reading of Call Me by Your Name (2017), claiming that its striking contemporary relevance during the first year of the Trump administration followed from working through the question of homotribal desire within liberalism.
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A presentation of emotional detachment is sometimes encountered in working with challenging patients. The term ‘disavowal’ describes a particular kind of splitting of consciousness in which the person repudiates awareness of disturbing realities or their meanings. Disavowal involves a distortion of emotional significance, rather than a distortion of perception, as in the case of a dissociative split in consciousness. Detachment protects the individual from emotional contact, which is experienced as potentially overwhelming. Safety is achieved, but at the cost of denuding mental life of meaning. With the help of detailed clinical material, the challenges of working with a person who has established a psychic retreat based upon disavowal are outlined. I describe the clinical challenges of working with someone who places themselves out of reach of emotional engagement. A state of inbetweenness protects the person from knowing about their aggressive impulses, their need for care and the passing of time. This forestalls experiencing the dangerous, shameful feelings of dependence. The clinician needs to recognize the necessity for the defensive retreat, whilst being patiently ready to enter engagement when the patient becomes available.
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