In the midst of a moral panic against queer and trans folks, where they’re labelled as “sexual predators”, it’s important to consider how proponents of the moral panic themselves contribute to sexual violence against queer and trans folks by advocating for conversion therapy — Content Warning: sex, sexual violence including rape, child sexual abuse and sexual assault The escalation of transphobic and queerphobic rhetoric worldwide (and subsequent legislation and violence) in the past few months has been justified by conservatives claiming that transgender and queer youth are ‘groomed’ by people in power (Schipper, 2022…

How Alison Rumfitt’s debut novel explores the desire and trauma of fascism through queer lenses in a splendidly gothic setting — No live organism can continue to exist compassionately under conditions of absolute fascism, even the pigs in Chile under Pinochet’s rule were observed to take part in political killings. This line, Alison Rumfitt’s paraphrasis of the opening lines of Shirley Jackson’s gothic novel, The Haunting of the Hill House¹, perfectly…

An inquiry on the pervasive intersections of femmephobia and fatphobia within online spaces through an analysis of presentations of bodies and desires in the hook-up app Grindr — Recently, I re-watched the French queer erotic thriller movie L’Inconnu du lac. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the political themes explored in the movie, directed by Alain Guiraudie, the second time around. The film’s politics explore sadomasochism, desire, eroticism and terror; including critiques of the “rightward…

How the Family Imposes Traditional Genders, Sexualities and Sexes, and Subverts the Queer Existence — Introduction The family is a remarkable institution. It is, at the same time, a subject of utter reverence and bitter condemnation. It is often where the child’s first moments and the adult’s final moments are spent. Along with the workplace, the family is where the individual probably spends most of their…

Social Media as the Panopticon: An Epiphenomenon of the Totality of State & Capital and an Intentional Framework of Invading the Body — Today social media has become a part of everyday life. Life beyond social media seems impossible to imagine. Despite this, we never seem to look into the force around social media. There are popular narratives, of course: “social media is a decentralising agent that helps build connections”, “social media is…

On Psychiatry’s Horrifying Past, The Notion of Mental Illnesses and Their Relationship with the State and Capital — Introduction The psychiatric institution has been established as one of the crucial institutions of the society; not unlike the Clinic, the School, the Family, the Workplace, the Prison, Religion, the Media, and so on. Psychiatry is responsible for protecting the status quo, much like the other institutions mentioned earlier. Psychiatry is…