ARTES PERFORMATIVAS

Are age and time categories of privilege? You might be surprised: Oh yes, they are. I have never personally interrogated age and time from this perspective. And I will tell you more: both are categories of societal norms that reiterate patterns of oppression and exclusion.

Some readers might say that this is quite a bold statement. How can something that appears so natural, like age, and something so embedded in human existence, like time, oppress us?

When I was at university, and I just started writing papers for coursework, my partner gave me great advice: “Nothing is natural, nothing is self-evident; never use these words in your writing.”: Simon(e) van Saarloos’s Against Ageism. A Queer Manifesto takes (thankfully!) nothing for granted. This book is a thought-provoking journey towards understanding social norms, injustice, and the need for queering society and conception of time at once. The book presents an intersectional, abolitionist perspective that critiques age-related laws, social expectations, and power structures.

Dividing humans into separate and well-defined ages aims to make people understandable to each other and to function within a normed society. Van Saarloos argues that childhood is the starting point from which inequalities start. Childhood in a white Western society conceptualised as a privilege every child should have: a carefree, joyful experience. But is this an experience that all children share? Protecting this idea of childhood originated from the need for laws against child labour: this was, of course, referring to white children.

Data collected by UNICEF confirms that child labour is still very much a reality for children mainly for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, and refugee children in non-urban areas. In Sub-Saharan countries, this is reaching up to 50%. Furthermore, the UNICEF data shows that there is no real difference between child labour between the sexes, so childhood becomes a sex and genderless age. Is it so?

A 2022 study found that LGBTQ+ people facing adverse childhood experiences are vastly higher than heterosexual individuals. (Tran, Henkhaus, and Gonzales 2022) Moreover, LGBTQ+ individuals experience consistently high or rising levels of bullying and violence during their childhood and adolescence, which places them at a greater risk for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in their adulthood. (Mustanski, Andrews, and Puckett 2016)

This is not only imposing an ideal of childhood which orients itself to white and Western narratives but also creates a hostile, violent narrative targeting LGBTQ+ youth. Right-wing and anti-gender activists continue claiming that the gender binary is a “natural” human inclination.
Gail Bederman’s cultural history of masculinity in the US investigates the roots of the gender binary in the early 20th century. Scientists and policymakers under the term “civilisation” justified both eugenics, white supremacy, and patriarchy. Controlling gender and sexuality is essential for preserving the white race and preventing so-called racial decline, which was linked to gender non-conformity.

The new definition of American masculinity is an exclusive trait of white men, with non-white groups regarded as too “uncivilised” to display clear distinctions between male and female identities. This illustrates that racism and hate towards non-conforming sexualities and gender identities have played a central role in shaping gender norms; at the same time, those gender norms have reinforced racist ideologies. (Bederman 2010)

Thus, childhood is highly sexualised within a binary concept, and age plays a crucial role in the triad of gender, race, and class. Shedding light on this triad using queer theory as the primary approach is Van Saarloos’s strength. The author critiques the predominantly white, Western perspectives on ageing and challenges the assumption that old age is a construct universally experienced by all, even though life expectancies of BIPOC are lower.

While reading this, it immediately took me back to the COVID-19 pandemic and John Clarke’s Paper titled “Following the Science? Covid-19, ‘Race’ and the Politics of Knowing” (Clarke 2021) in which racial inequalities resulted in higher deaths among racialised individuals in the UK. In other words, biopolitics decides who gets to live and who dies.

Even though the UK government preached that “we are all in this together”, the “impact has been profoundly unequally distributed: it has disproportionately affected older people, poor people, people working in low paid but ‘essential’ occupations (from health and social care to the food chain), and people who are not ‘white British’ (in census category terms). These are, obviously, not separate categories: racialized minorities in the UK are more likely to live in poverty, to be concentrated in low paid employment and form a disproportionately large part of the health care and social care workforces.”(Clarke 2021, 250–51)

Particular to Van Saarloos’ work is the way-finding modes within intergenerational intimacy. The age difference between partners is surrounded by assumptions that frame these relationships as inherently problematic. The author included their reinterpretation of Adrian Piper’s ‘Calling Cards’. These calling cards inspired the author to address the misidentification of their intergenerational relationship in the public space. Even in moments of sexual intimacy and while kissing the author and their partner were interpreted as relatives. Piper’s calling cards are an instrument of agency and empowerment. The card reads “Dear Friend, you have just misidentified my lover as my mother/daughter.” Empowerment exists in addressing the assumptions, and in the moment, the person reading the card starts questioning the normative thinking imposed on them. The cards also foster a limitless queer imagination which enables existence in a free and genuinely queer way.

I wish I knew about these cards when I was in my early 20s. Me and my ex-partner were travelling around the countryside in south Bavaria because I wanted to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. Yes, the “Disney castle”. We didn’t book any accommodation, and we were desperately calling all small family run bed and breakfasts in the area. Finally, one German elderly lady said she would accommodate us. I remember her inquiring gaze trying to make sense of one male in his early 20s and his fellow traveller in his 40s with grey hair and his even greyer beard. Little I knew, I had to get used to the feeling of being questioned. Sara Ahmed description of this feeling is frighteningly accurate: “Sometimes, whether or not you are asked a question, you feel questionable. Maybe you have been questioned too many times; you come to expect it; you begin to live your life as a question. You feel like a question mark; you feel marked by questions. Sometimes you might be asked questions because of who you are with; or how you are with who you are with.” (Ahmed 2017, 120)

Sometimes my mouth operates before my brain kicks in. “Are you brothers?” – the host asked. I blurted out: “No, we’re sisters”. My ex (who, you should know, is a bit of an a*se) looked at me in his belittling way and I started feeling terribly uneasy. The lady started laughing, probably because she thought it was a joke. How can two – in her eyes (?)– “masculine looking” bearded guys be sisters?

After reading chapter V. Fuck your Racist Grandma, I started questioning that episode. Why are we treating elderly people like children? Why should this part of their life be without challenges? Why do they exist in a safe bubble stuck in their past. This is a paradox: we treat the elderly like toddlers taking away their power of agency, yet, at the same time, they justify their ignorance by repeating the mantraesque “we always did it that way”.

The paradox inherent in the court trial of a 96-year-old secretary who worked at the Stutthof concentration camp illustrates how public opinion can diminish the agency of individuals based on their age, while also highlighting the ways the elderly attempt to justify their actions. The Itzehoe Regional Court found the former secretary guilty of aiding murder in more than 10,000 cases. Initially, the defendant was reluctant to participate in the trial. On the first day of the proceedings, she vanished early in the morning from her care home, prompting a police search that located her hours later. An arrest warrant was subsequently issued. The defendant remained silent throughout the trial and ultimately received a two-year suspended sentence.

Many narratives surrounding the current court trials of former Nazis working in concentration camps use old age as an excuse for the atrocities they committed. The most common objections raised by defence lawyers are those of incapacity to stand trial and incapacity for detention. (Eichmüller 2008) Age and linear time are often used to assert privilege and evade responsibility.

But how can we change our perspective on time? Van Saarloos explores the notion of “Crip Time”. This idea challenges the traditional, linear perception of time by acknowledging the different ways disabled individuals experience and navigate the world. Crip time recognises that individuals with disabilities may need more or less time to complete certain tasks, experience fluctuations in their energy levels, or follow non-traditional timelines for education or employment. Instead of perceiving these differences as shortcomings, crip time reframes them as legitimate and essential ways of existing. This perspective promotes a more inclusive and liberating understanding of time and accessibility.

At first, I believed that the author’s non-linear structure would make the book difficult to navigate. However, this turned out to be one of its most intriguing features. Van Saarloos remains faithful to the content. If the topics had been presented chronologically, age to age, the book would have conformed to the system it aims to dismantle. The themes of childhood, adulthood, and old age appear in every chapter of the book. Each section deconstructs age and social norms from philosophical and legal perspectives, highlighting the connection between social norms and the iterative normative legal frameworks. Van Saarloos surprises readers with their unapologetic portrayal of the constraining and conforming forces that victimise both bodies and minds.

This Queer Manifesto is engaging and challenging, inviting readers to question societal norms they may never have critically examined before. On the one hand, the book offers a powerful theoretical critique. On the other hand, it would have been beneficial to play further with imagination. What could a potential roadmap for society look like after eliminating structures of power? How can we design public spaces to be inclusive for everyone, rather than just a select few? This book is essential for anyone keen to engage with transformative and imaginative ideas about creating a better world. A better queer world.

Federico Bossone
PhD candidate in Culture Studies at Universidade Católica Portuguesa. He graduated in Museum Studies and Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Germany. Between 2020 and 2022, he was a resident Teaching and Research Fellow at the same institution where he taught undergraduate Museum Studies seminars since 2018. His research interests include museums and identity, discourse and culture, Jewish studies and Jewish material culture, religious cultures, and gender studies.

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Bibliography

Ahmed, Sara. 2017. Living a Feminist Life. Durham London: Duke University Press.
Bederman, Gail. 2010. Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Clarke, John. 2021. ‘Following the Science? Covid-19, “Race” and the Politics of Knowing’. Cultural Studies 35 (2–3): 248–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2021.1898019.
Eichmüller, Andreas. 2008. ‘Die Strafverfolgung von NS-Verbrechen Durch Westdeutsche Justizbehörden Seit 1945. Eine Zahlenbilanz’. Vierteljahrshefte Für Zeitgeschichte 56 (4): 621–40. https://doi.org/10.1524/vfzg.2008.0028.
Mustanski, Brian, Rebecca Andrews, and Jae A. Puckett. 2016. ‘The Effects of Cumulative Victimization on Mental Health Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Adolescents and Young Adults’. American Journal of Public Health 106 (3): 527–33. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302976.
Tran, Nathaniel M., Laura E. Henkhaus, and Gilbert Gonzales. 2022. ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental Distress Among US Adults by Sexual Orientation’. JAMA Psychiatry 79 (4): 377. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.0001.