Diotima: The Marist Undergraduate Philosophy Journal
affairs because it generates profit through the sexual exploitation of sex workers
(typically affects low-income women, trans-women, and Women Of Color
disproportionately). In fact, sex work ultimately becomes another manifestation of
estranged labor because it becomes a sex worker’s means of sustenance.
Although American society in the twenty-first century has moved closer
towards this goal, members of the LGBTQ community are still fighting for their
right to take up space in the world and continue to endure violent attacks
perpetrated by white nationalists. Dr. Alan Sears, a prominent queer theorist,
examines these ongoing contemporary disparities still facing the queer community
even though liberal legislators continue to claim that LGBTQ individuals possess
complete legal equality. Though he acknowledges that the process of capitalist
restructuring has opened some space for queer existence, Sears argues that creating
spaces for “commodified” forms of queer existence is oriented around this idea of
“rainbow capitalism.” Rainbow capitalism, which I would call neoliberalism, falls
short of achieving true queer liberation because of its commodification of social
movements into something profitable. 16 However, other queer theorists like the
world-renowned Michel Foucault, have argued that the repressive structures in
society police discourse revolving around sex and sexuality, which relegates the two
into the private sphere. 17 Consequently, Foucault claims that heterosexuality is
normalized while homosexuality continues to be stigmatized. Some of Foucault’s
post-cursors, such as Nancy Fraser and Nancy Hartsock, have criticized Foucault
for naively supporting neo-liberalism, his view of subjectivity as constructed by
power, and his inability to outline norms that serve as the basis for his critical
enterprise . Fraser, on one hand, argues that the problem with Foucault’s claim that
forms of subjectivity are defined by relations of power is that it undermines the
probability of resistance to these power structures. 18 On the other hand, Hartsock,
16 Sears, Alan. “Queer Anti - Capitalism: What’s Left of Lesbian and Gay Liberation?” Science & Society 69, no. 1 (2005): 92 – 112. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40404230. 17 Peter Burke, Critical Essays on Michel Foucault, (England : Scolar Press, 1992), 20. 18 Nancy Fraser, ”Foucault on Modern Power: Empirical Insights and Normative Confusions,“ PRAXIS International 3 (1981): 272-287.
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Volume VI (2023)
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