Since the most important element of any concept is that its originating question be appropriately framed, any theory demanding an explanation for homosexuality is a problematic one because it maintains our existence as a category of deviance. I mean, no one is running around trying to figure out why some people like sports, for example.
Sarah SchulmanWhat I tend to tell my students is, โWhen you look in the mirror and see a smart, angry girl who wants to be free, you're seeing a paradigm that Kathy [Acker] helped bring into the recognizable.โ
Sarah SchulmanProbably, the nature of homophobia will never be widely interrogated, while we will continue to be excluded from school curricula, subjected to vicious media distortions, or entirely ignored, denied basic civil rights while our demands are ridiculed and derided. But in the midst of all this only one thing has changed for certain. We have changed. We will never go back into the closet.
Sarah SchulmanI want to be a witness to my own time because I've had a sneaking suspicion lately that I'm gonna live a lot longer than most of the people I meet. If I'm gonna be the only one still around to say what happened, I'd better pay close attention now.
Sarah SchulmanPeople see themselves as 'succeeding' because they are individually exceptional -- they don't see that there is a mechanism that has made it possible for them.
Sarah SchulmanHIV criminalization is a global trend, but surprisingly Canada has some of the worst HIV laws in the world - they have incarcerated 200 people to date who have not infected anyone, and half of them are black. This is emotional manipulation that began as an anti-immigrant measure and has devolved into an exploitation of sexual anxiety. It's a crisis of meaning.
Sarah SchulmanSince the most important element of any concept is that its originating question be appropriately framed, any theory demanding an explanation for homosexuality is a problematic one because it maintains our existence as a category of deviance. I mean, no one is running around trying to figure out why some people like sports, for example.
Sarah Schulman