‘Saving Muslim queer women from Muslim hetero-patriarchy’. Savior narratives in LGBTI youth work

Abstract

Across different cultural and national spaces, the meanings of citizenship, nationalism, modernity, colonialism, and sovereignty are being negotiated in debates about anti-homosexuality in Europe. In this text we analyze and discuss a poster campaign aimed at youth produced by the national lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersexual (LGBTI) rights organization in Finland (Seta), and a discussion at a seminar on rainbow youth, where the poster was addressed. We pay close attention to one poster in particular, which displays an image of a woman, who is marked as Muslim, kissing another woman who is marked as Finnish. The image conveys a colonialist savior motif whereby European patriarchy shows itself saving a brown woman from brown hetero-patriarchal masculinity. Spivak's postcolonial deconstructive approach implies a critique of certain forms of masculinity studies which are blind to the ways in which rescue narratives may be racist.

Keywords:

• LGBTI youth work
• homonationalism
• racism
• rescue narratives
• Muslim

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This forms part of the post 9/11 rhetoric in which the ‘war on terror’ emerged as a strong political discourse separating ‘us’ from ‘them.’ In this case the US ‘war on terror’ specifically targeted Muslim bodies and, as Jasbir Puar argues, these events also lead to homonationalist and exceptionalist rhetoric in relation to gender and sexuality.

2. Seta is a national umbrella organisation, working with advocacy, training, social work, and youth work regarding LGBTI issues.

3. Here we refer to particularly the role of Western Europe that constructs itself as liberal, progressive, democratic, and upholding the values that are seen to have failed in Eastern European countries, for example, where strong anti-gay sentiments are considered to be political, human rights, problems. Recent developments in Russia have also received wide media coverage and attention and mobilized LGBTI activists in the Nordic countries and Europe.

4. LGBTI is the terms Seta uses to refer to lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and intersex persons.

5. The Finnish parliament rejected a marriage equality bill in 2013 and a petition was initiated to force the lawmakers to reconsider this (if a petition is signed by 50,000 people a bill needs to be reconsidered). After taking just one day to gather 50,000 signatures on such a petition, the petitioners delivered the petition to Parliament (http://purpleunions.com/blog/tag/finland). The marriage equality bill, which aims to legalize equal marriage by making marriage gender-neutral (thus including same-sex couples), was passed in parliament in 2014, was affirmed by the President in February 2015, and will be implemented in March 2017. It is the first law that has been initiated by a citizens’ initiative in Finland.

6. This notion of temporality was also used by the campaign behind the initiative for a gender-equal marriage act. The campaign titled ‘I do 2013’ constructed equal marriage as an important human rights goal, in relation to which Finland is at the risk of ‘falling behind’:

Finland is at risk of falling behind when it comes to human rights development. We feel that it is an immense injustice that Finland remains the only Nordic country where same-sex marriage is not recognized by state law. We believe that every human being has the right to get married, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. (http://www.tahdon2013.fi/in-english/why-a-citizens-initiative/)

Furthermore, the call saw marriage as one of the ultimate goals for the advancement of human rights. Other voices have, however, critiqued the mainstream politics of gay rights as centring on the question of marriage. Anti-racist feminist and queer activists in Finland have in particular critiqued marriage as the ultimate human rights goal. Atlas Saarikoski wrote a column called ‘I do not 2013’ (http://www.vasemmistofoorumi.fi/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/atlas.pdf) stating that marriage is always a bad political goal, highlighting the fact that marriage is intimately connected to the history and politics of racial hygiene and that marriage as an institution has been a way of defining whose lives are decent, whose are not, and who is allowed to be together or to reproduce. The Pink Black Bloc against racism and capitalism at Helsinki Pride 2013 distributed flyers stating: ‘We don’t take pride in a city from which Roma people and squatters are kicked out for not creating profit. We do not want to get married and have access to middle-class dreams’ (http://takku.net/article.php/20140623133947100/print). These voices connect gay and queer politics to questions of recognition, livable lives, economic injustice, biopolitics, and European immigration laws and practices.

7. The four posters represent different couples and were produced with two pamphlets to accompany the pictures. The caption in the pamphlets is ‘Love is love,’ with further written commentary on the pictures. This text is about love and respect and does not really refer directly to the multiculturalism of the posters. Here we focus on the image itself, as well as the discussion regarding the meaning of the poster in a seminar on queer youth.

8. Benetton, the Italian based clothing company, became known for their controversial advertisement campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s displaying what was considered ‘outrageous’ topics, such as HIV, anorexia, the Gulf War. Some of their advertisements explicitly addressed on questions of race, with images displaying differentially racialized people visualizing the name of the brand, ‘United colors of Benetton.’ These images presented diversity as a harmonius coming together, while hiding the underlying structures of racism and discrimination. These pictures thus became a brand, the image of the company. Benetton also published an ‘unhate’ campaign in 2011 displaying world leaders kissing, another campaign that received attention due to its politically ‘incorrect’ messages.

9. This information was presented at the ‘Rainbow Youth’ seminar at Hanaholmen, which is a Swedish and Finnish cultural center. Further details about the complaints were not given.

10. ‘Vai onko sellaista että me yritämme ehkä vähän törmäyttämään arvoja, kunnioittamaan eri ihmisten arvomaailmoja mutta joillain tavoilla haetaan semmoisia kohtauspaikkoja joissa eri arvomaailmoista tulevat ihmiset ymmärtävät että on erilaisia arvoja, vaikka ei niitä hyväksykään.’

11. ‘Minulle tulee mieleen yksi Ranskalaisessa lähiössä nuorisotalo joissa minä kävin kesällä jossa hämmästyn sitä että siellä oli hyvin Muslimi, Muslimi, mitä mä sanoisin rikas [skrattar lite] ympäristö, ja siinä Muslimi rikkaassa ympäristössä sinne nuorisotaloon, oli viety valokuvanäyttely homoseksuaalisesta nuorista … se oli mielenkiintoinen millä tavalla…siinä oli tavallaan törmätty tietyllä tavalla eri arvomaailmat.’

12. We do not have any facts about the exhibition. It might not necessarily have been ‘brought in.’

13. A title which refers to the ‘It gets better’ anti-gay bullying campaign directed at queer youth, initiated by US American sex columnist and gay rights advocate Dan Savage, which received widespread international attention with celebrities like Adam Lambert, Alexander Skarsgård,, and President Barack Obama posting videos telling queer youth that ‘It gets better.’

14. ‘Ehkä minä ensin nyt selitän tämä juliste Gate tota asian, jotten siitä ei synny väärä kuvaa. Kyllä se oli sarjasta Setan tekemiä julisteita joista yhdessä huivi päinen tyttö suutelee toista tyttöä.

Se ei liittynyt niinkään niissä keskusteluissa tietyllä Helsingin alueella siihen että kysymyksissä oli tyttöpari vai siihen että huivi päässä osoitettiin avoimesti seksuaalisuutta. Ja siihen millaista on arvokas Muslimi elämä.

Minkälainen elämätyyli ihminen valitsee kuin hän laittaa huvin päälle.

Minun mielestä oli kysymys siitä että, jos että loukannu, että juliste ei ollut ehkä tarpeeksi hienovarainen. Ne muut julisteet jota siinä sarjassa on jäi sinne seinälle. Mä haluisin vain korjata sitä että ei jäisi semmoinen kuva että meille homoudelle ei ole tila.’

15. ‘Jag håller inte med dej i hur ni hanterade situationen med affischerna. Nu blir det väldigt fokus på det, men det är ett talade exempel för min fråga blir var ligger solidariteten. Visst du säger att det fanns andra affischer kvar och så vidare, men just det här att se personen som en hel individ. Det finns plats för homosexualitet. Men det finns inte plats för homosexualitet eller sexualitet om du är ung tjej med slöja. Då kanske det inte är lika självklart att du får uttrycka den. Det här tänker jag vad det gör. Säg att det finns en ungdom som faktiskt passar in i precis den här bilden som såg någon på fritidsgården ta ner den här affischen. Och den tystnad och de klimat som man redan utsätts för.

Man utsätts säkert redan för rasifiering, för homofobi och kanske till viss del också för hedersnormer. Att då få veta att den fritidsgård jag får gå till där känns det ändå inte som om jag inte får plats. Och får vara alla delar av mig själv.’

16. Charlie Hebdo is a cartoon magazine that has been targeted in violent attacks twice, in 2011 and 2015, in response to some of their satirical cartoons concerning Mohammad.

Additional information

Funding

This article results from a 3-year collaborative transnational research project ‘Engaging South African and Finnish youth towards new traditions of non-violence, equality and social well-being’, funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa, and the Academy of Finland.

Notes on contributors

Katarina Jungar

Katarina Jungar is a postdoctoral researcher at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. She works at the intersection of postcolonial feminist, queer and critical race theory. Her PhD theses focused on AIDS activism in South Africa. Today she is interested in anti-racist feminist, queer and anarchist activism in Finland.

Salla Peltonen

Salla Peltonen is a doctoral student at the Department of Gender Studies, Åbo Akademi University. Her research investigates questions of language and ethics in feminist theory, especially in the work of Judith Butler and Rosi Braidotti. Her work is inspired by Wittgensteinian language philosophy and ordinary language philosophy more broadly. Her research interests include critical gender and queer theory, posthumanism, theories of sexual difference, and wittgensteinian language and moral philosophy.