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Queer Work Productivity, Reproduction and Change

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Queer Work Productivity, Reproduction and Change Queer work productivity, reproduction and change Siân F. Bradley Supervisor name: Malena Gustavson, Gender Studies, LiU Master’s Programme Gender Studies – Intersectionality and Change Master’s thesis 30 ECTS credits ISNR: LIU-TEMA G/GSIC2-A-16/004-SE Presentation Date 5 September 2016 Department and Tema Genus Division Publishing Date (Electronic version) URL, Electronic Version http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-xxxx (Replace xxxx with the correct number) Publication Title Queer work: productivity, reproduction and change Author Siân F. Bradley Abstract Work in general is under-theorised as a site of oppression in queer and intersectional studies, despite the power imbalances it manifests and its far-reaching effects on everyday lives. Anti-work theory is a useful conceptual tool for examining work critically. The purpose of this study is therefore to form a bridge between queer and anti-work politics and theory. Using a broad conception of work drawing on the Marxist and feminist concepts of social reproduction and emotional labour, this study explores anti-work politics situated in relation to the author (who is queer), in contrast to previous accounts which focus on a heteronormative division of labour. The text lays down a theoretical background bringing together elements of queer, anti-work and intersectional theory. With the lack of previous work on the topic, the study instead incorporates previous empirical research on queer work and delves into their problems, before returning to theoretical texts on the relation between queer and capitalism, and the politics of anti- work. This study is centred around the reports of nine queers in Berlin, Germany. It uses the ethnographic methods of semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to gain intersectional insights into the links people make between queerness and the drive to work, resisting work, and the future. Number of pages: 74 Keywords Queer, Work, Anti-work, Intersectionality, Social reproduction, Social change Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 2 Purpose ....................................................................................................................................... 3 Outline........................................................................................................................................ 6 Theoretical views ....................................................................................................................... 7 Choosing not to choose .......................................................................................................... 7 Work ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Anti-work ............................................................................................................................... 9 Queer? .................................................................................................................................... 9 Intersectionality.................................................................................................................... 11 Previous research ..................................................................................................................... 13 “Counting” queers: time use surveys and domestic labour division.................................... 14 Class and queer .................................................................................................................... 15 The Problem with Work....................................................................................................... 16 Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 18 Feminist research: transforming gendered lives .................................................................. 18 Queer methodology .............................................................................................................. 19 Change and futures .............................................................................................................. 19 Ethnography ......................................................................................................................... 20 Method and materials ........................................................................................................... 22 Ethical considerations .......................................................................................................... 24 Analytical themes..................................................................................................................... 26 1. Queer ................................................................................................................................ 26 Gender and relationships ................................................................................................. 27 Fluidity and change .......................................................................................................... 27 Intersectional locations, identity and context .................................................................. 28 Contestation ..................................................................................................................... 30 Homonormativity ............................................................................................................. 31 Political awareness ........................................................................................................... 32 2. Jobs .................................................................................................................................. 35 Queer in the workplace and queer careers ....................................................................... 35 “Good jobs” and “bad jobs” ............................................................................................. 37 3. Social reproduction .......................................................................................................... 40 Housework ....................................................................................................................... 40 Biological reproduction ................................................................................................... 42 Care work and emotional labour ...................................................................................... 44 A history of queer care: The AIDS crisis ........................................................................ 47 “A space where I can be”: Chosen family and queer community ................................... 48 Health and self-care ......................................................................................................... 50 4. Subjectivity and self-worth .............................................................................................. 53 Neoliberalism ................................................................................................................... 53 Productivity and work ethic ............................................................................................. 54 Leisure, non-work and laziness........................................................................................ 61 5. Change and futures: Getting a life ................................................................................... 64 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 70 References ................................................................................................................................ 71 1 Introduction Though this study takes place in my current home of Berlin, Germany, I was born in Salford, UK. It was one of the first industrialised settlements in the world, an environment shaped by the demands of early capitalist work. Friedrich Engels described poor workers in Salford in 1845 in The Conditions of the Working Class in England, having made the journey in the opposite direction from Germany to Salford – an ethnography of sorts1. His family owned some of the mills that shaped my region, and he used his cut to fund his friend Karl Marx’s work on his book Capital (1867). I knew nothing of this, no Marx and no mills, despite growing up in one of the redbrick workers’ terraces iconic of the post-industrial north of England. I was child of a single working mother. As such, I spent time in workplaces. Sitting cross-legged on the floor of a workers’ rights organisation, itself housed in a former mill warehouse, I listened avidly to one-sided phone calls about withheld wages, homeworking scams and unfair dismissals. I got to know her colleagues in Salford’s more cosmopolitan neighbour Manchester, including the only lesbians I ever met back then. Although I saw how work such as my mother’s could be full of personal and political opportunity, I felt from a young age that it was more often a problem. Housework was rather ungendered in all my childhood homes and I was shocked to later discover that people were still expected to take on housework roles on the basis of being women. Women’s work in relation to men has long been an important topic for feminists. But I am queer and gender non-conforming. So are a very large number
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