the nexus of "disease", gender, and sexuality
a reaction to blackouts by justin torres
what struck me most when reading blackouts by justin torres was the way in which his novel demonstrates how strictly “scientific” interpretations of the human experience attempt to put sexuality, sex, and gender into tightly defined binary or trinary boxes. “scientists” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries began inventing new categories of “disease” to help them “treat” sexual “deviancy,” which they saw as an “illness.”
one character in blackouts possesses a collection of numerous documents from a large study conducted with the aim of categorizing and understanding so-called sexual deviants. each document is a portrait of one person’s sexual experience, though presumably written with the supposedly objective standards of science. in fact, the study was begun in a much rawer fashion: but it was soon picked up by psychiatrists who applied their rigid standards of reality to their interviews with subjects. what fascinates me about these documents in the novel itself is how almost the entirety of each document has been blacked out: someone has taken the documents and blacked out all but a few details from each person’s sexual history and experience
what i felt like when reading blackouts was that these smaller little clips, which only include sometimes 5-10 words out of a document that actually includes 100 words, are a truer depiction of each person’s experience than the more “complete” scientific version. because what has to be remembered about scientists is what a very close friend, himself now holding a phd in science, once told me: “they’re humans first, scientists second”
certain subsets of scientists and pseudo-scientists have invented and precisely defined categories like “life,” “species,” “biological sex,” “mental illness,” “sexual orientation,” and “disease.” they pass these concepts down to their students. these categories help scientists collect data, understand the world, and discover new relationships: these categories cure illnesses, save lives, advance technology. but they are still categories, not things. they are not real. they are ultimately based only upon our own extremely limited senses, and when we deploy these concepts to categorize things what we must understand is that our senses are hardly capable of perceiving even a fraction of the reality before us. when scientists forget this or become religiously attached to the concepts their predecessors have created to help them navigate a much blurrier and confusing reality, their ability to describe reality can be critically hindered as soon as the true reality conflicts with their invented concepts. remember what alan watts says: “humans like to put things in boxes, but the real world is wiggly wiggly wiggly”
“disease” is the invented category which interested me most when reading blackouts. the pathologization of virtually every form of sexual and gender deviancy is a key theme at the heart of blackouts. virtually every form of sexual and gender non-conformity has at some point been categorized and treated as a “disease” or “mental illness.” there are some who have so much faith in these invented categories that they still believe the citation of a few scientists is sufficient to justify labeling sexual or gender-nonconformity as an “illness.” but there is no such thing as a disease or an illness. “ill” is a made up category. useful, yes. life-saving, yes. but still not a real thing.
blackouts by justin torres is an excellent read about the queer experience in america and how queer people have been pathologized (among many other rich themes having nothing to do with sexuality or gender!!!)
i hope you grab a copy and enjoy!
also yeah sorry but i am ready for fall!!!!
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