Emotional Attachments and Secular Imaginings

Bibliographic Data

ID3653189
AuthorsMitra Rastegar (corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume19
Issue1
Pages1-29
Publication date2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGLQ A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1064-2684 • E-ISSN: 1527-9375
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/10642684-1729527
OpenAlexW2053265616
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited22

Through an analysis of Western lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) activist responses to the executions of two youths in Iran in 2005, this article considers why an interpretation of the executions as a case of antigay persecution became predominant despite reasons for doubt. I argue that this interpretation gained power because of how it resonated emotionally with the activists' liberal, secular imagination. A story of homophobic persecution cast these victims as exemplars of a universal "gay" experience and of a "civilizational divide" between a violently intolerant Islam and a progressively more tolerant West. This dynamic of identification and differentiation was powerfully articulated through expressions of love, fear, and disgust. Furthermore, the Internet, which facilitated the rapid circulation of images of, stories about, and reactions to the case, also proliferated emotional and affective responses that further validated this interpretation as a kind of "felt truth

Aesthetics · Anger · Art · Criminology · Disgust · Interpretation (philosophy · Lesbian · Persecution · Political science · Politics · Queer · Sociology · Transgender · Gender Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Social Psychology · Turkey's Politics and Society

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