Globalization

This week we read ‘Global Desires and Transnational Solidarity: Negotiating Indigeneity among the Worlds of Queer Politics’ by Scott Lauria Morgensen. The first part of this article discusses ‘Radical Faeries’ as part of a larger discussion on “the globalism of U.S. queer modernities as effects of settler colonialism” (Morgensen). Radical Faeries are described as a queer subculture who adopt a primitivist ideology in their pursuit of “cultivat[ing] a healing queer identity by living in harmony with nature, practicing emotional communication, and exploring queer spirituality” (p. 165).

The problem with white settler primitivist ideology is the disconnect from history that such an approach entails: Radical Faeries and other primitivist queer subcultures take the “good” and leave the “bad.” As well, white settler queer primitivists are responsible for appropriating (and perverting) Indigenous culture. While non-Indigenous queer primitivists can be recognized as having good (although, self-serving) intentions, their efforts are problematized by their lack of recognition for their situation in lands stolen by Indigenous peoples and where Indigenous peoples continue to face adversity and oppression due to colonialism.

I recognize a similar dilemma in the trend of non-Indigenous peoples labelling themselves with and/or identifying as “Two-Spirit”. In a blog post titled ‘A Letter to White People Using the Term “Two Spirit”,’ Beja writes:

“Many white people who use the term “Two Spirit” are doing so out of a desire to resist the dominant binary and find a way to describe a feeling deeper than words. There is nothing wrong with this impulse…It only becomes a problem when we are stealing, rather than creating or reclaiming these words. It is especially troubling when white, US-born people, without Native lineage, steal words or ideas from Native/First Nations tribes and people – because our entire existence on this land is already based on centuries of theft (not just of words, but of land, resources and lives) and very current imbalances of power.”

The parallel that I draw between white settler queer primitivism (manifesting in forms such as the Radical Faeries subculture) and the appropriation of the term Two-Spirit by white settlers is the lack of regard that non-Indigenous queer primitivists and “white Two-Spirit” individuals have for the history and ongoing injustices experienced by Indigenous peoples.