Decolonizing Desire: Sexual Politics in Global Political Theory

• In Event: Global Decolonial Politics and Black Liberation

Abstract

Desires for inequality, hierarchy, subordination and dominance are pervasive. For this reason, desires are frequently met with deep suspicion in political theory—Plato’s luxurious city, medieval scholastic concerns about the passions of greed and lust, and present-day critiques of late modern capitalism’s reliance on overconsumption all have this in common. At the same time, following queer theory and attending to the social dimensions of desire, one can easily see desire as a vital site of liberation. Herein lies a central tension at the heart of the concept—desires are frequently met with deep suspicion for a reason. Many desires are deeply pernicious, as in the case of racist or fetishizing desires, or those that lead to abuse. Many if not most desires are vulnerable to being tainted, corrupted, and corroded. Yet for people who have been subject to oppression because of the desires they have, desires are often an essential source of self-identity. Moreover, desires are a core condition of democracy—if democracy depends upon a people collectively deciding how to live, then a key question that must be asked is “what do we want?” This raises the question of how we can possibly do democracy, if what we want is always vulnerable to cooption for antidemocratic ends. This paper draws from global political thought, and especially decolonial political thought, to navigate these tensions and argue for a democratic politics of desire.

Author

• Alena Wolflink, University of Denver