For the Love of Love: Neoliberal Governmentality, Neoliberal Melancholy, Critical Intersectionality, and the Advent of Solidarity with the Other Mormons

Abstract

This article performs critical intellectual labor for social and political change against neoliberalism in three ways. First, it explores and connects neoliberal governmentality and neoliberal melancholy, two anchor experiences in our twenty-first century political quotidian. Second, it engages in the sense making of Proposition 8 (a California voter initiative to ban same-sex marriage, which was narrowly passed in 2008) as a case study of religious organizations (the Mormon Church and their religious allies) and their complicity with neoliberal states to foster subjection and subjectivation through critical intersectionality that goes beyond the identity trinity of race, class, and gender. Finally, the article suggests two technologies as a new hand to outplay the excess of neoliberalism for the triumph of our common humanity: 1) mourning over the devastation brought about by neoliberalism and 2) loving our love for those with whom we usually do not form affinity connections, such as the other Mormons, those who are othered because of their departure from church orthodoxy.

“I'm Just a Woman Having a Baby”: Negotiating and Resisting the Problematization of Pregnancy Fatness

“…The goal is to create a warm, open and comfortable space which is not only productive in terms of gathering research data but also opens up the potential for a "healing dimension" to the research (Frid et al, 2000, p.701). By emphasizing relationality and care in the research encounter, the researcher seeks to offer a counterpoint to neoliberal logics in which women are separated, blamed and shamed, offering participants a pathway to the articulation of discursive resistance and counter discourse (Lee, 2012). Prepared transcripts were analyzed using a form of poststructual discourse analysis with a particular interest in problematizations and subjectification (Arribas-Ayllon and Walkerdine, 2008).…”

Inviting the Breach: Confronting Homophobia in the Name of Social Justice

“…It was common to see bumper stickers and signs for and against Proposition 8 throughout the state, and the rhetoric illuminated the links between heteronormativity, traditional gender roles, and religion. According to Lee (2012), "We need to make sense of Proposition 8 as a political battle ground for local and global orchestration with uneven, nuanced, and intersectional manifestations" (p. 920).…”

“No Bare Bottoms”: The Responsibilization of the Good Gay Citizen in Icelandic Media Discourses 1990–2010

“…A substantial body of literature exists on the responsibilization embedded in neoliberal governmentality (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002;Orgad, 2009;Rose, 1990) and some on its impact on sexual minorities (Adam, 2005;Lee, 2012;Marzullo, 2011;Peterson, 2011;Whitehead, 2011). However, further research is needed on the role of the normalization processes that allow certain sexual and gender minorities to become integral parts of social and national wholes.…”