AG Heinzelmann, 13.06.2025 It’s about Sex: Queerness as a Radical Political Notion

The term "queer" is often used overly promiscuously in the Global North to refer to any type of counterculture. This understanding of the term "queer" is problematically trivializing. If queerness is robbed of its specifically subversive sexual aspects, it fails to recognize the struggle of communities formed in the face of ongoing sexual oppression. A primary function of the term "queer" is to recognize identities that are marginalized because of the subversion of the (white) heteropatriarchy. Accordingly, we propose to understand being queer as centrally about subverting (white) patriarchal gender norms that pertain specifically to sexual desire and behavior. Some countercultures do no subvert norms of this kind at all. The focus on sexuality is of special importance. Patriarchal norms dictate the presence of a (racialized) hierarchy based on biological sex where cis (white) men's interests, and the preservation of their power, are of paramount importance. Being queer means subverting this status quo. 

Nico Orlandi is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Their research focuses on philosophy of mind and cognitive science, drawing on cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and computer science. Orlandi currently works on the nature and acquisition of concepts, especially social categories. They are also affiliated with the Feminist Studies department at Santa Cruz. They received their Ph.D. in 2007 and held prior positions at Rice University and the Stanford Humanities Center. Orlandi has been a visiting researcher in Tokyo, Paris, and Ontario, and their work appears in leading journals like Synthese, Noûs or Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.