Gender After Civilization Journal is seeking submissions

GENDER AFTER CIVILIZATION: Queer Lives in the Aftermath is a journal of queer anarchist theory and art from anti-civ, post-civ, green, anti-colonial, and indigenous thinkers. First and foremost, we reject the notion that the negation of civilization will necessarily exclude trans* struggles, from both sides of the argument: objectionable TERFs such as Derrick Jensen, and aptly-named truscum who deny the lived experiences of indigenous trans* folk pre-colonization. We believe industrial civilization actively works to degrade and assimilate queer lives. This much is apparent. The question becomes: what lies past the veil of insurrection against Leviathan? What will our queer lives be like in the aftermath?

This call is purposefully brief: this journal is intended as a space to explore the possibilities that total liberation will bring. Against all cages!

Send all submissions to feralliberation@autistici.org before May 1st, 2019.

There are 61 Comments

I hope gender (a form of governance) is destroyed during the collapse of civilization.

"What will our queer lives be like in the aftermath?"

...whatever us queers WANT them to be like. to the authors of this journal, have yall ever read any of this?
https://baedan.noblogs.org/

in my opinion THE BEST journal on anti-civ queer anarchy.

yeah, it’s so good i consider everything solved, now can just not bother having to read or write anything ever again.

(not a diss at baedan, on the contrary. merely commenting on how stuff one finds deficient prompts me to critique it, making me want to read and write more, while stuff i find good enough makes want to stop, like “nuff said, good enough, well said, couldn’t have said it better myself, i could nitpick it, but too much effort, very little payoff”. but also y journals so long + many issues y dont u just uhhh do something else........like um...hmm...what’s something other than writings and words?)

eanting to eat is not the same as wanting to cook, much less doing the gardening, farming, hunting or gathering needed previous to the cooking. so many people into writing recipes for “insurrection”, but little cooking. who ever got good at cooking by polishing their writing?

Writing polemics (especially limited to critiques of the present disease) is NOT "reverting to savagery" (becoming a normal/healthy human). The latter is like acquiring a practical/applied Masters Degree. There are no low-skill laborers in "savage" societies. Never mind the protracted process of working through/dropping away all the Deep Structure damage "civilized" humans are packing around.

I even wrote and produced a book, which is more of a testable theory of human nature and a tool kit than a polemic. But this is NOT the same thing as applying it. I've done part of this, and the rest of my life will be devoted to finishing the job.

Gender after civilization?
After which civilization? Who will be around to witness the aftermath?

“The question becomes: what lies past the veil of insurrection against Leviathan? What will our queer lives be like in the aftermath?”

veil, insurrection, Leviathan, margarine words? an insurrection can last a day, or a few moments, and not permanently end any civilization. is the period during which it’s ocurring, and its aftermath, interesting to this journal in that case? is insurrection considered better, cooler, or more “effective” than isolated attacks, riots, parties, desertions, defections, mutinies, etc.?

if gender is abolished, what is queer lives? how is it abolished? is it destroying what enforces it + forgetting about it? can it be considered abolished if it exists in living memory? how many generations after its would destruction would have to live and die to erase it from memory?

Worthy questions that, self-evidently, these idiots didn't ask to themselves. That's as bad as you'll get coming from tools who believe "gender" is a form of governance. They have yet to read about social institutions... my bad.

you are an excellent slave to "social institutions" if you don't believe gender is governance. social constructs are not real. only your submission to them. institutions are only as powerful as you allow them to be. be explosive. don't be a slave.

"social institutions aren't real"

As much as the "governance" of genders is. These are social realities, dumbo, and as far as society itself isn't neither a thing, this is just theoretical abstractions. In the case of genders as governance, it's poor abstraction. It is known already that genders are social institutions and just like any other social institution they are being used within schemes/dynamics of social management. You don't have to reinvent the wheel... especially not for a crappier one that's not even turning.

people literally materialize institutions through participating in them. literally the same as pathetic people like you embracing victimhood and participating in the materializing of gender. here is an idea. learn how to physically defend yourself by familiarizing yourself with your own violent potential. and don't take shit from anyone. abandon the expected roles and identity of social constructs. then it doesn't matter what society labels you as. its all just delusional. you make your own victimhood. you can make your own freedom as well. don't pity bait people about how gender is a reality. its fake. just like god and morality.

right now the only thing that's real is your obedience to spooks and the victimhood you embrace.

i like you more and more with every comment.

First you start off by agreeing with the idea that social institutions exist but yet as reified constructs... then you go on straw-manning me -just because I brought the concept of social institutions- of "embracing victimhood"... whatever that means in your screwed head.

Ok well thanks for the advice, but yea I don't need your self-inflating big ego to show me the way to his crackhead utopia under the highway overpass.

Everyone buckles under the relentless pressure of nihil-esque evidence, even the furry fury of frenzied feline LSD fantasies fall upright on four legs!! (Koan)

everyone unbuckle and lets feel the pressure under each other

freeway overpasses deep in the backwoods.

i meant, let's get naked and rub each other. an equally unfeasible proposition?

You are still a slave. You still depend on victimhood to make yourself feel respectable in a pitiful way. This isn't nor was advice. I am just mocking you and the garbage politics you represent.

I'm eager to see if your precious straw men at least has a spine. You know... like more than you have irl.

After civilization collapses well probably just negate gender by castrating eachother and drinking the piss from pregnant horses.

*whispers* Mother and I shall be swimming in a pool of opioid suppositories.

I read this as 'GENDER AFTER CIVILIZATION is seeking submissives' and was down to apply

...hmu

I don't understand people, like who write this "heresey journal," and this romanticized view of the end of some civilization. I don't think trans and queer struggles would be that much of a priority after the end of some civilization. Their view of insurrection is kinda strange. Insurrections are typically temporary or don't last very long and aren't civilization ending events

it might not be a priority to you. gendered notions have survived civilization collapses before. and there were those who survived and lived to challenge them.

Even if gendered notions don't survive Id still be trans. My body would still need to have hormones supplemented. Id still want to continue to change how I look. Even without the colonial form of gender that the world knows today, people have altered their bodies in these ways for thousands of years.

Its interesting the way cis people conflate transness (ie altering one's body) with gender, yet somehow see making the choice to keep ones body the same as a neutral position. Neither are neutral and both would continue to exist outside gender.

A couple questions:

1. How do you imagine you would be supplementing your body with hormone therapy in the event of the collapse of civilization?

2. On "transness": According to your logic; would getting a tattoo, or going to the gym, or taking a vitamin D supplement (All of which constitute forms of body modification...) qualify one as trans? According to your statement, does it stand to reason that nobody is *not* trans, given how our bodies are literally in permanent states of flux until we die?

"1. How do you imagine you would be supplementing your body with hormone therapy in the event of the collapse of civilization?"

Checkmate, neoliberal petty-bourgeois kids!

Troll tip: neoliberal is almost exclusively an economics term so, while attempting to mock and strawtrans this person, you should probably use a different slur that doesn't telegraph that you're just using words to pretend to be smart. Troll smarter, not harder!

Neoliberal in the Reagan era was given an economically based demographic by Reagan's spin team, but it has since come to describe an ideological stance.

In his essay "The Global Financial Crisis",
Rudd argues that the crisis will be the catalyst for an epochal and historic change in prevailing ideas and policy making by western governments. This change will see the downfall of neoliberalism — which he defines as the "free market fundamentalism, extreme capitalism and excessive greed which became the economic orthodoxy of our time". Rudd points to the clear warnings over many years of a looming crisis in banking. But these, he claims, were ignored because of an anti-regulation culture, particularly in the US.

Yes, you would still groom your friends, you would still preen yourself before meeting them, no?

Wouldn't that suggest that Gender and civilization are independent from one another? It's interesting because I know many who are outspoken about their belief that civilization is somehow the root of Gender, thus their queer nihilist desire to destroy civilization. I believe that Gender predates civilization, as indicated by the many uncivilized tribes who are resoundingly patriarchal (the Selknam, or "Ona" people, come to mind). Some uncivilized tribes don't share this predisposition for patriarchy (some are matriarchal). But the existence of both types would appear to suggest that... Idk, it's maybe more complicated than most anti-civ folks originally believed?

I've always thought that blaming domination on civilization is cart before the horse. Sorry for the figurative horse slavery in my metaphor but the will to dominate has been with us since the very beginning and sadly, civilization is just a dark and twisted nightmare monument that sprang from it! That's the bad news.

For those who are confused about this, perhaps the good news is they don't understand domination very well because they have so little desire for it?

WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN?!

... I know

Thankyou 16:32, I am another poster who agrees with your theory on civilization formation. Continue witn your refreshing nihil-esque queer per eptions, I will be right behind you all the way ;)

Someone on the Anvil review some years back took on Agamben's question of whether gender is an apparatus at base. While language can certainly become that on a secondary to tertiary stage he concluded that it ultimately isn't at base. It can be free and open ended depending on the mediations.

I have the same view of gender in regards to whether it is a governing structure or not. It can become that over time and secondary tertiary development but at base it's just a more provisional set of constructions and, I suspect also, morphic resonances. No need to abolish it, just take a more egoist agnostic view on the big G.

Will puberty blockers and synthetic hormones exist in a world where individuals freely self-create and where urban civilization has been dismantled? No.

i think trans and trans allies are more worried (or should be) about coordinationg and ensuring their survival, well-being, and enjoyment in their here and now, their daily lives, rather than worrying about some hypothetical apocalyptical scenario where the industrial mass production of puberty blockers and synthetic hormones, and commercial distribution is disrupted or destroyed.

Many trans people currently can’t get access to these resources. This should be remediated immediately, and those who share a queer nihilist illegalist and anti-civ perspective are certainly not an obstacle, and would directly aid, towards those aims.

Furthermore, some (will not make inference on proportions, try to give validity to their position according to a lesser or greater amount) trans people don’t take these hormones, and do not wish to. Trans is not defined mainly neither by genitals, elective hormone replacement or surgery procedures.

Transphobic primitive bogeymen should be feared no more than a transphobic heteronormative robocop, which is just as feasible and scary. Some forms of both can be said to already exist. The point is that it’s silly to discard an anti-civ critique (specially when thoroughly queer and nihilist, and insurrectionary anarchist) for being supposedly anti-trans because “if civ collapses, how will x product be produced”.

Everyone is well adviced to produce, acquire, stockpile, share, distribute, and trade what they need as they see fit, and try not to rely too much on structures and services that are out if their hands. This is easier said than done, near impossible in some cases. Poverty and scarcity thanks to The Economy, attacks and harassment, dependency and disprovision thanks to the State and dominant culture, all things these @ aim to attack.

Stop using some lazy type of “collapse by insurrection led by niche luddite anarchists that will directly and disproportionately negatively impact trans people” bogeyman. The “collapse” you should fear the most is the status quo we live and die in. Don’t worry about “after the revolution”, almost 100% won’t be such a thing, and most of us don’t one that kind of thing anymore anyways.

Most trans-activists and their allies immediately label any hint of anti-civ critique, eco-socialism, green-nihilism, green anarchy, indigenous traditionalist life ways, primitivist insights, heck even alternative healing or critiques of Big Pharma as “Forest TERF bigotry. In terms of your emphasis on the here and now, in a sense the question could also be: “ do puberty blockers and synthetic hormones have anything to do with attempts at genuine self-creation, disrupting normalcy or subverting authoritarian/mass civilization?” Or, is it possible to be a trans ally and be actively attacking or at least philosophically against, big Pharma/technological-civ?

“do puberty blockers and synthetic hormones have anything to do with attempts at genuine self-creation, disrupting normalcy or subverting authoritarian/mass civilization?“

yes, i consider that by itself it can be part of someone’s “genuine self-creation”, whatever that means (what is the virtue of “authenticity”, dear Socrates?).

by itself, it can only help toward “disrupting normalcy or subverting authoritarian/mass civilization” to a certain degree, until trans itself is normalized and the institutions adapt to a greater degree. trans and queer folx have made great inroads at eroding gender boundaries, definitions and norms, cultural ideas, policies, etc. but liberal discourse (academia playing an important part) is quick to co-opt/recuperate and direct all energies/trends toward liberal democratic centrist voter status quo things.
so by itself, it will never be enough and will only see diminishing returns, even regressive reactionary backlash from the institutions.

“ trans folx have helped erode gender boundaries”...hmmmmm.... I’ve only seen gender stereotypes and expectations reinforced by most trans....gender non conformity and individual self-creation are more of an anarchist or radfem thing aren’t they? Interestingly I did some research recently on “feminine and female cultural attributes”. It seems that nearly all of the basics that are adopted by contemporary women, including, and especially trans women, actually originated among the male aristocracy: long fingernails, high heels, make up, perfume....

your mom is a male aristocracy...nerd

We gender nihilists loath the old patriarchial customs of fashion, perfume and ridiculous ways of catwalking!

yes...my wild dagger is always sharp, ready to scalp coiffed powdered wigs of aristocracy, for the true aristocracy is that of the iconoclastic, savage nihilist individuslist expropriator...i renounce all artificious perfume, and adorn the breeze with the aroma of my poopy farts, and sweaty glands...i do not catwalk, but stalk and pounce like a feral cat to attack!! my wild glee is armed with fangs and nails, listen to my dark giggle as skip away in an aromatic puff of my essence!

We Stirnerian Knights despise your nihilist negation of individual choice and uniqueness, and your dagger would be made flacid and useless against our powerful rage against any ressentiment, even your type that exercises its laws of destruction which we find just as depressing as any other law.

my wild dagger always become stab-shy at the sight of Stirnerian Knights...not because i fail to find a chink in their in armor, but because they’re...frankly, not my kink...though i admire from a distance...their flexibility and oral dexterity applied to the performance of auto-fellatio...though that can be pretty hot, when done literally...not so much when i’m referring to their verbal onanistic ego-stroking...

I'm gay semantically and speak like a transexual, but I don't wear lipgloss or cosmetics or steroids, I'm just me sweety, so put the phallus innuendo away, its a meaningless and impotent objectification of a personal overton window.

: ( but...but...my entire nihilist farce is based on just three puns...dagger...glee...giggle...giving up the dagger bit would force me to be creative...and read more nihilist stylistically affected prose in order to mock it... : (

There's absurd religious mojos, levitating consciousness, wailing laughter, cerebral fart-bongs, and tapdancing into the abyss to just mention a few topics to keep nihilists enthralled.
C'mon, meat daggers, muscle shivs and dangling swords is over.

So throw away that corpuscled claymore and foxtrot over to the abysmal edge of your destiny, scream out your disgust with all organized race and gender based ideologies and gatherings, abandon hope and obedient sentimentality, and just enjoy gleeful meaninglessness.
Good luck!!

Huh. That's interesting. I must be out of touch, but this conception of trans-ness seems fundamentally different from the thinking around gender that I'm more familiar with. The gender binary is a thing to be destroyed rather than redefined and defended.

Ally here seems to just mean "do what I say" rather than "have my back."

i know ally is a dirty word now, but it’s shorter and easier to spell than accomplice or co-conspirator. acquiantance is an irrelevant word at this moment, but it sure is hard for me to spell. i can’t call everyone friends cuz that’s annoying, most don’t know me, and some don’t like me ;p

Wouldn't LSD be a better drug to take for teens to explore their identity before the oncome of their genetically determined real self. They'd also live to be 100 yrs and able to leap over parked buses.

wouldn’t hurt to try i guess, but it doesn’t have to be either or. good information and friendly spaces to try those out would be ideal, but peeps already try all of those out in wild and dangerous/risky spaces as well, for better and worse

Well, I find the whole complex identity conflict as the new popular myth to fill the vacuum of mediocrity which has become the normal parameter to self-awareness. The organic element which distinguishes the fate and beingness of free life form is being denied by a perverse narcissistic aesthetic. I like it when it rains and the ugly facts of life challenge me to exercise my unique powers, not those of a popular cloned identity benchmark.

has taken part of my pen-name, and my preoccupation with LSD?
I'm going to SUE for copyright infringement!

I've heard 2 stories about how ayahuasca was discovered.
One is that people saw a cougar eat the 2 plants that make up the concoction, and then enter a psychedelic session.
(Cougars, like little kitties, eat kitty grass as an intestinal scour. Being BIG kitties, cougars eat a lot of it. Not much grass in a rainforest, so cougar-kitties there eat plants.)

There will always be castration under anaesthetic (alcohol and mallet) and the filling of bras with pairs of sox!

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