Abstract
Heterosexualism is inextricably tied to coloniality and modernity. This paper explores the potential of Argentinian philosopher Maria Lugones’ theorisations of heterosexualism and the colonial/modern gender system for sustained critical engagement with settler colonialism in so-called Australia. ‘Heterosexualism’ refers to a system of relations between settlers and Indigenous peoples characterized by racialized and gendered power dynamics. Lugones’ theory on the colonial/modern gender system unpacks the utility of social and intellectual investment in universalised categories including race, gender and sexuality. Such categories are purported to be biological, thus, prior to culture, settlers and colonial institutions. However, the culturally specific nature of knowledge produced about race, gender and sexuality reveals that the origins, and indeed the prevalence, of heterosexualism in Australia is inextricable from settler colonialism. This paper exhibits how heterosexualism and the colonial/modern gender system operate in service of settler colonialism, facilitating settler dominance and reproduction on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands.
Highlights
Revisiting Heterosexualism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System (Lugones 2007), I can remember how small and rigid the world seemed, and how it expanded and its structures weakened as I read work that both imagined and articulated alternative models of social order
In Australia as well as other Anglo settler colonial nations, there is substantial evidence to suggest that patriarchal structures of governance, property and intimacy have been introduced to Indigenous peoples and societies through gendered enculturation and civilising projects including Christian missions and, medical and educational institutionalisation (Graham 2014; Moreton-Robinson 2015; Simpson 2017)
Heterosexualism as a critical framework highlights the integral function of sex, gender and sexuality in modernity and coloniality
Summary
Revisiting Heterosexualism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System (Lugones 2007), I can remember how small and rigid the world seemed, and how it expanded and its structures weakened as I read work that both imagined and articulated alternative models of social order. Lugones’s interdisciplinary and activist approach to philosophy, feminist philosophy, earnt her international acclaim She describes her own work as ‘theoretico-praxical’ Her students and colleagues describe her as deeply committed to coalition and community building, and collective change in both her career and personal life (Micale 2020). This approach succeeds her, living on through the enduring global use and relevance of her work.
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