The Ultimate Theory of Everything
The farcical embrace of "Palestine" by academic feminists and gender ideologists
Though the antisemitic rage that has engulfed the Western Left since October 7, 2023, is no laughing matter, the academic fields of feminism, gender, and sexuality studies are doing all they can to touch up that monstrous evil with broad brush strokes of farce.
It was of course inevitable that these gender-bending kooks and wierdos would jump on board with the rest of the Hamas-hugging Jew bashers. Postmodern progressivism being a Theory of Everything, all factions of the Left are grabbing a piece of the action. It matters not at all that Palestinian nationalism in general and Hamas specifically reject and revile everything that feminism and gender ideology purports to stand for. The oppressor/oppressed template leaves no wiggle room: The Jews being settler-colonialist white supremacists, the Palestinian Arabs must be noble victims and Hamas terrorist must be heroic freedom fighters. The only question on the agenda is how feminism, queer theory, gender ideology, etc. can support the war of liberation.
That’s where the comedy comes in, as described in this article by National Review’s Haley Strack. She draws attention to a conference held last month at Rutgers University: “Palestine is a Queer Feminist Struggle Against Imperialism.” Yes, that was its actual title. Who knew that Hamas is fighting on behalf of those “marginalized communities”?
As reported by the Jerusalem Post, conference participant Nadin Naber, a professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Global Asian Studies at the University of Illinois, set forth the case for gender ideology, queer theory, and feminism’s intervention in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
We will need our organization to focus on queer and trans people not only because they are particularly vulnerable to colonial violence and racism, but because they embody a nuanced wisdom about Zionism as they live with all its complexities. Indeed, the methods of rape and sexual assault documented during the establishment of the State of Israel and continuing today are not exceptional in colonial violence. They are part of the logic and practice of Israel's white colonial settlers who combine violence against women with the land and nature, assuming that to control the land, one must control the bodies of Palestinian women and their reproductive capacities, from 1948 until today.
Her host, Maya Mikdashi, a professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers, denounced the wicked Israelis for drawing attention to the orgy of rape indulged in by Hamas freedom fighters during their October 7 pogrom, not to mention the group’s violent homophobia. “I have been in demonstrations where people told me, ‘You do not know what Hamas would have done to you if you were in Palestine,’” she said. “We need to start calling it homophobic. It is impossible to legitimize violence against queer people—it's an act of violence.”
It’s not quite clear what Mikdashi was getting at, but she seemed to be arguing that in certain circumstances it’s homophobic to denounce homophobia.
Naber chipped in to accuse Israel of that heinous sin, “pinkwashing,” describing it as “a strategy that Israel employs to distract attention from its oppression of Palestinians against a growing international Palestinian solidarity movement.” By this she means that we’re not supposed to notice when Hamas goons chuck a gay man off the roof of a tall building or stone an adulterous wife to death. That would “distract attention” from the battle to establish a free, river-to-sea, Palestine.
Such are the mental gymnastics being practiced in departments of feminist studies, gender studies, queer studies, etc. to align their various ideologies with the Palestinian cause. It may well be asked how these people can reconcile their professed beliefs with the ugly realities of Hamas and Palestinian nationalism. The answer is simple: They know very well that such horrors will never be inflicted on them.
This, indeed, is the attitude of the entire “anti-Zionist” Left. Progressive American Jews who revile Israel know that Hamas isn’t coming for them. The ladies of the Squad know that Hamas terrorists will never rape them, cut their throats, and parade their mutilated bodies through the streets. Black Lives Matter knows that Hamas hang gliders will never descend in its headquarters. They all can live with the knowledge that the “liberation” of Palestine is a genocidal project because they’ve reduced the actual human beings involved to abstract categories: “setter-colonialists,” “indigenous people of color.” And besides, no one’s asking them to pick up an AK-47 and join the fight.
Thus the element of farce in the feminist/queer/gender mob’s embrace of the Palestinian cause is accompanied by larger element of fraud. “Palestine is a Queer Feminist Struggle Against Imperialism” wasn’t about Palestine at all. A more honest title for that conference would have been: “How Can Crazy People Like Us Use Palestine to Appear Relevant?”
Very easily as it turns out, for in a world governed by a totalizing ideology, everything’s connected. In the eyes of the progressives, Zionism is bad. Therefore, it’s connected to all other bad things: imperialism, colonialism, white supremacy, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, et al. So even the kooks and wierdos of feminism, gender, and sexuality studies can horn in on the action. And don’t you dare laugh at them!
Perfect.
You cannot keep me from laughing you laughaphobe you.