Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Desire vs. convention
There has been lots of debate within the gay and lesbian community about whether the embrace of marriage represents a loss of something significant for the community. One article on the debate contained a quote from Laurie Essig that concisely captures the sentiment:
"In the past, we queers have had to beg, cheat, steal and lie in order to create our families. But it's exactly this lack of state and societal recognition that gave us the freedom to organize our lives according to desire rather than convention."
Social convention may not always provide the best framework for organizing one's life, but I'm pretty sure that desire is an even more dangerous candidate for that function.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/06/desire-vs-convention.html
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"Desire n. - 1: conscious impulse toward something that promises enjoyment or satisfaction in its attainment." Rob, not sure how you are defining "desire" that would make you label it as a dangerous candidate for framing one's life. I imagine nearly all of us organize our lives in the way we do because we believe that such organizing promises, on some level, enjoyment or satisfaction if attained. I read the quote as meaning that, before, they really had to *want* it to have their family, as society disapproved; and somehow that made it more special. Akin to an early underground Christians, who really had the faith and had to *want* to practice the faith (at peril of dying) vs. somebody who happens to be sitting in a pew in a modern church b/c it is convention.