Opening Political Bodies: Gender Performativity as Resistance Under Pharmacopornographic Capitalism

Abstract

This thesis is an investigation of the performative reconstitution of a queer body and subjectivity in art, and how this allows for not only a reclamation of identity, but also complicates and begins dismantling the present pharmacopornographic model of capitalism. I accomplish this through a close reading of Paul Preciado’s Testo Junkie, and other texts such as Jean-Luc Nancy’s writings on community and José Esteban Muñoz’s Disidentifications. Through the lenses provided by this theorists, I examine the radical implications contained in the work of Ron Athey, Emma Frankland, and Claude Cahun, who each place their queer bodies at the core of their artistic practices. Finally, I explore queer grief as a disidentifactory practice, and locate the importance of mourning in each of these artists’ work. Ultimately, this thesis is a testament to the importance of queer art as a means to destabilize the seemingly all-encompassing pharmacopornographic system which seeks to reduce and demarcate subjects along legible binaries. By showcasing the ways in which liberatory and performative artistic practices allow for the reappropriation of a queer subjectivity, I demonstrate that the harmful narratives around gender, which have been normalized by the pharmaceutical and pornography industries, are dangerous fictions. And thus, this thesis is a small step in the formation of a queer world.