Judith Halberstam - Imagined Violence/Queer Violence: Representation, Rage, and Resistance

Imagined Violence/Queer Violence: Representation, Rage, and Resistance Author(s): Judith Halberstam Reviewed work(s): Source: Social Text, No. 37, A Special Section Edited by Anne McClintock Explores the Sex Trade (Winter, 1993), pp. 187-201 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/466268 . Accessed: 25/12/2012 09:29 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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Imagined Violence/Queer Violence REPRESENTATION, RAGE,

AND RESISTANCE Fear is themostelegantweapon... It willbe demonstratedthatnothingis safe, Sacred or sane. There is no respite From Horror.Absolutesare Quicksilver.Resultsare spectacular. --JennyHolzer and there'sreligiousleaders and health-careofficialsthathad betterget ?. biggerfuckingdogs and higherfuckingfencesand more complex security alarmsfortheirhomes and queer-bashersbetterstartdoingtheirworkfrom inside howitzertanksbecause the thinline betweenthe inside and the outside is beginningto erode and at the momentI'm a thirty-seven-foot-tall man insidethissix-foot one-thousand-one-hundred-and-seventy-two-pound I I all can feel is all can and the feel is the pressureand the body pressure need forrelease. -David Wojnarowicz In "Do Not Doubt the Dangerousness of the 12-Inch Politician," David Wojnarowicz asks "should people pick up guns to stop the casual murder of other people?"' In Thelma and Louise, a woman responds to a rapist who tells her to "suck my dick" by blowing him away and raises the question of what happens when rape victims retaliate. In "Poem about Police Violence," June Jordan asks, "what you thinkwould happen if/everytime they kill a black boy/thenwe kill a cop?"2 These questions are all rhetorical, hypothetical, and unanswerable. They are powerful rhetorical strategies, however, because they present possibilities and they trouble the fine line that divides nonviolent resistance fromrage and rage fromexpression and expression from violent political response. This essay does not advocate violence in any simple sense; but it does advocate an imagined violence, the violence that is native to what JuneJordan calls, in a filmof the same name by Prathiba Parma, "a place of rage." What is the exact location of "a place of rage"? I will argue that rage is a political space opened up by the representationin art, in poetry,in narrative, in popular film, of unsanctioned violences committed by subordinate groups upon powerfulwhite men. The relationshipbetween imagined violence and "real" violence is unclear, contested, negotiable, unstable, and radically unpredictable; and yet, imagined and real violence is not simply a binary formulation.Precisely because we cannot predict what action representationswill give rise to, it is impossible to describe the bound-

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Judith Halberstam

arythatdividesimaginedviolencefromrealviolencein anydetail.Jordan's place of rage is a strangeand wonderfulterrain,it is a locationbetween and beyond thought,action, response,activism,protest,anger,terror, murder,and detestation. Jordan'splace ofrageis groundforresistance. A recentcontroversy overthe fragileline betweenthe imaginedand the real was the uproaroverrap singerIce-T's song "Cop Killer."In an electionyearand in the wake of the L.A. insurrection, Ice-T's song created a consensusbetweenliberalsand conservativesabout the limitsof and what constitutedtheirviolation.People who would representation otherwisebe defendingfreespeech demandedthatIce-T notperformthe song live and thatthe tape/CD be pulled fromthe shelves.Ice-T, well awareofthelinehe had crossed,had thisto sayto thequestion,"Whydo you thinkpeople takeyoursong so literally?" Lots of reasons.Politicsmostly. to getelectedand all that. Peopletrying There'speopleout therewithnuclearbombsand yetwe'vegot all these to makea politicalplatform based on a record.Isn'tit politicians trying ridiculous?3 Ice-T goes on to say thatthemedia has focusedon the song as partof a problemgenre:rap. But,he pointsout,thesong is noteven a rap song,it ofthiserroris glaring:anyrecordby is a hardrocksong.The significance a black man is rap and rap music is a genreof music thatmustbe conis supposed to essentializeand tained. Genre,likeracial categorizations, stabilizetheformand contentof Ice-T's culturalproduction.His protest, however,thatthe song is a hardrocksong and thatit shouldbe heardas a fictionratherthanas a directprovocation,emphasizesthewaysin which The censorsrefuseto grantthe song any moralor narrativecomplexity. is a call to arms. taken song literally-as intoa stymieddis"Cop Killer" is a violentand ragefulintervention cussion about police brutalitydirectedat minoritiesand especiallyat African-Americanyoung men. While the debate surrounding"Cop Killer" centeredupon whetheror not Ice-T was advocatingviolence againstcops, Ice-T himselfunderstoodverywell the powerof representation.In responseto the question,"Do you advocatethe murderof law officialsin yoursong 'Cop Killer'?" Ice-T responds: enforcement No way . . . what I'm tryingto tell people is that police brutalityin the

in thisguy,thecop killer 'hoodis nothing new.Andthethingis thatwhether at OK?4 real there are that is or believe not, it, point, people mysong,

Later in the interviewIce-T suggeststhatcops should be scared by the This is a brutality. song and he hopes thattheirfearwillpreventfurther 188

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complicatedargumentabout theuses of fear,about the selectivedeploymentof terror,and about therelationof threatto change. The Ice-T controversy revealeda crisisin the politicsof representation: the censorshipactivitydirectedat "Cop Killer" made visible the space ofthepermissible.It also markedracialviolenceas a one-waystreet in America: whiteviolence is not only permittedbut legallycondoned whilethe mererepresentation of black-on-white violenceis the occasion forcensorshipand a paranoidretreatto a literalrelationbetweenrepresentationand reality.Whilea whitejurywas to blurthelinebetweenrepresentationand realityin the case of thevideo of police brutalizingRodofthisrelationin the neyKing, a whitemediajuryestablishedthestability case of Ice-T. Obviously,theinterpretation of theliteralis an ideologically valencedact,and in thisinstance,literality is a traditional politicalstreamliningof complexmaterial. The eruptionofrebellionin thestreetsofL.A. and itsrepresentations in hip hop cultureindicateveryclearlythatviolentlaw demandsviolent resistance.Tactics of nonviolentresistancedeveloped in the sixtiesand used nowadaysseem to have become dangerouslyhegemonicratherthan indeed,outrageoftentakesa back disruptive.In politicaldemonstrations, seat to organized,formal,and decorous shows of disapproval.In San Diego, forexample,shortlyaftertheL.A. uprisingof spring1992 in the wake of the RodneyKing decision,people filledthe streetsto sing,give speeches,and marchupon the police station.What mighthave been an directedat theracist,violent outpouringof rageand angerand frustration tacticsof the local police was transformed ratherquicklyinto a passive and indifferent meeting. The groupof "protesters"actuallyfolloweda routelaid out forthem a by police escortand arrivedfinallyat a desertedpolice building.After some chantingand shouting,the crowdquietlydispersed.Local newspapers indeed were able to reportthatin the case of San Diego, the city remainedrelatively calm in theaftermath oftheKing verdict.5 The failure of nonviolentresistanceto registeranythingbut the most polite disapproval,I suggest,is the effectof a glaringlack of imaginationon thepart of political organizers,and an overemphasison "organization"itself, whichoftenproducesdeterminedefforts to eradicateexpressionsof rage or angerfrompoliticalprotest.Such expressions,afterall, mightlead to somethingspontaneous,somethingthatspillsacross the carefullydrawn police lines,somethingthreatening. When and whyand how did rage disappearfromthe vocabularyof organizedpoliticalactivism?In whatfollows,I willnotattempta historical or ethnographicanswerto thisquestion;rather,using literaryand cinematic examples of imaginedviolenceand articulatedrage, I elaboratea as a powerfulstrategy ofrevolt theoryof theproductionof counterrealities Imagined Violence/QueerViolence

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Protestin the age ofAIDSis not separate from representation; and "die-ins, "kiss-ins," posters, slogans, graphics, and queer propaganda create a new formof politicalresponse that is sensitiveto and exploitiveof the blurred boundaries between representations and realities.

emanatingfroman increasingly queer postmodernpoliticalculture.I use the word "queer" here to denote a postmodern,postidentitypolitics focusedon but notlimitedto sexual minorities.6 has been accused of notbeingpoliticalenoughbut in Postmodernism factit is politicalactivismthatoftenfailsto be postmodernin Americain the 1990s. Powerand conflictno longeronlyspringfromthe domain of politics,and resistancehas become as much an effectof popularculture, of videos, films,and novels,as of directaction groups. Postmodernism invitesnew and different conceptionsof violentresistanceand itsrepresentations.As Michael Taussig writes,we live in a "nervoussystem,"a systemcharacterizedas "illusionsof ordercongealedby fear."7The fear, the order,the nerves are all produced preciselyas illusions,fantasies whichgovernand disciplinethe self.However,it is also in the realmof thatwe makethesystemnervous,and thatwe fantasyand representation can controland use our illusions.Imagination,in otherwords,goes both (or many)ways. So, whatifwe imaginea new violencewitha different object;a postmodernterrorrepresentedby another"monster"withquite other"vica possible realitythat tims" in mind? "What if" denotes a potentiality, but one whichcreates may onlyeverexistin the realmof representation an "imaginedviolence" withreal consequences and which corresponds onlyroughlyto real violenceand itsimaginedconsequences. Recently,queer activismhas revivedan emphasison loud and threatand groupslikeQueer Nation and ACTUP eningpoliticaldemonstration, regularlycreatehavoc withtheirparticularbrand of postmodernterror marshallrenegade tactics.ACT UP demonstrations, furthermore, regularly art formsto produce protestas an aestheticobject. As Douglas Crimp writes in AIDS DEMO-GRAPHICS:

and political AIDS activist artis groundedin theaccumulated knowledge by theentiremovement. analysisof theAIDS crisisproducedcollectively butactively to its thatknowledge contribute The graphicsnotonlyreflect as well.8 articulation

Protestin the age of AIDS,in otherwords,is not separatefromrepresentation;and "die-ins,""kiss-ins,"posters,slogans,graphics,and queerpropaganda createa new formof politicalresponsethatis sensitiveto and and realities. exploitiveof theblurredboundariesbetweenrepresentations in popular film Meanwhile in the arena of popular representation, and realitycontinueto be and video, the lines betweenrepresentation starklydrawn.Liberals continueto complain about the violentsubject matterthatespeciallykids are exposed to on TV and in cinema. But, I suggest,representedviolencetakesmanyformsand some stillhave the 190

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power to produce change. ConventionalTV and movie violence, of course, consistsof violenceperpetratedby powerfulwhitemen usually againstwomen or people of color. Such violenceis a standardfeatureof theactiongenre,oftherockvideo,of almosteverypopularformof entertainment,and to a degreeit is so expectedthataudiences may even be immuneto it. On theotherhand,violenceagainstwhitemen perpetrated by women so or people of colordisruptsthelogic of represented violence thoroughly that(at leastfora while)theemergenceof such unsanctionedviolencehas an unpredictablepower.In recentyears,popular textsthatprominently featureviolenceagainstwhitemen have been thoroughly analyzedby the popularmedia. So, forexample,RidleyScott's Thelmaand Louisecreated an unprecedentedwave of discussionsaround the issue of violenceand women.9Suddenly,violence,and particularly femalerevengefantasyviolence, was tagged as "immoral,""extravagant,""excessive," or simply "toxicfeminism."'0 Debates ragedaboutwhether we reallywantto condone a kindofrolereversalthatnow pitsfemaleaggressorsagainstmale victims. But role reversalnever simplyreplicatesthe termsof an equation. The depictionof women committingacts of violenceagainstmen does not simplyuse "male" tacticsofaggressionforotherends; in fact,female violencetransforms the symbolicfunctionofthefemininewithinpopular and it simultaneously narratives challengesthehegemonicinsistenceupon thelinkingof mightand rightunderthesignof masculinity. Womenwith in guns confronting rapistshas thepotentialto intervene popularimaginings of violenceand genderby resistingthe moralimperativeto not fight violencewithviolence.Filmslike Thelmaand Louisesuggest,therefore, not thatwe all pickup guns,butthatwe allow ourselvesto imaginethepossiviolencewithviolence. bilitiesof fighting as victimsratherthanperpeWomen,in otherwords,long identified tratorsof violence,have much to gain fromnew and different configurationsofviolence,terror,and fantasy. Withinthe"nervoussystem"women are taughtto fear certainspaces and certainindividualsbecause they threatenrape: how do we produce a fear of retaliationin the rapist? Thelmaand Louiseis an example of imaginedviolencethatproduces or may produce an unrealistic(givenhow fewwomen carryand use guns) fearin potentialrapiststhattheirvictimsare armed and dangerous.Of course,thereis no directand simplerelationshipbetweenimaginedviolence and real effects:just as it is impossibleto judge the waysin which interactswithmale sexual violence,it would pornographicrepresentation betweentheimaginedand therealto claim onlyrestabilizetherelationship thatrepresenting femaleviolencequells male attacks. The "place ofrage" whereexpressionthreatens to becomeactionis of coursethattightly patrolledand highlyambiguousspace thatwe call "fanImagined Violence/QueerViolence

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tasy."The powerof fantasyin the realmof eroticdesirehas been theorized variouslyby feminist,psychoanalytic, and postmoderncritics.In feministtheory,for example,fantasyconstitutesa problematicsite for various contests over representationand politics-the pornography debates have posed the question of whetherrape and violence against women are in part produced by the objectifyingdynamicsof pornobetweendesireand graphicfantasy.Such questionsabout therelationship to be unanswerable thisrelationshipis have since representation proven constantlybeing refigured.In an essay titled"The Force of Fantasy," between however,JudithButlerproposesthatwe rethinktherelationship the "real" and fantasyby refusingto grantthe "real" an a prioristability. She suggeststhatthe "real" is "a variableconstructionwhichis always outside: fantasy,the and only determinedin relationto its constitutive theunreal."" unthinkable, What happens when we make imagined violence-as opposed to erotic fantasy-the object of criticalscrutiny?What is at stake in this questionis thewaythatsexual fantasiesmightor mightnotintersectwith theconstructednatureof thereal. violentfantasiesto forceintovisibility If imaginingviolentwomendoes nothingelse forexample,it mightshift for articulatingthe relationshipbetweenfantasyand the responsibility realityfromwomento men. In otherwords,powerlies in the luxuryof not needingto knowin advance whatthe relationshipis betweenrepresentationsof violence or sexualityand acted violenceor sexuality.The in thearena of sexualityhas fortoo burdenof stabilizingthisrelationship long fallento women and to feminismand has, of course, produced feministsand the reliunproductivealliances betweenantipornography gious Right.Texts like Thelmaand Louise create anxietyabout fantasy and realityin a verydifferent groupof spectators. "Imagined violence" is obviouslyan adaptationof BenedictAnderson's well-known conceptionof thenationas "an imaginedpoliticalcommunity."'12Andersonexplainsthat"communitiesare to be distinguished, but by the stylein whichtheyare imagnot by theirfalsity/genuineness, is one of themostpowerined." Whilenationalism,likenationalidentity, thereare manyotheridentitiesthat ful effectsof imaginingcommunity, are mobilizedbythepowerof fantasy.Furthermore, imaginedcommuniof tiesallow forpowerfulinterventions: theyallow forthetransformation fear into violence. imagined imagined is theQueer Nation/Pink PanOne exampleof such a transformation thersslogan"Bash Back." In responseto homophobicviolence,thisgroup mobilized around the menace of retaliation.In an essay on "Queer Lauren Berlantand ElizabethFreemanexplaintheaffectivNationality," ityof thisstrategy:

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"BashBack"simply intends to mobilizethethreat gaybashersuse so effecIfimagining in not in numbers ofa fewbodieswhorepbut the tively-strength presence forwidespread resentthepotential thebashersthemselves. violentwomen violence-against In thisway,thesloganturnsthebodiesofthePinkPanthers intoa psychic counter shieldbeyondtheconfines theirprotective oftheir does nothingelse threat, expanding physical "beat."'3

itmightshift the

The powerof the slogan,in otherwords,is its abilityto representa violence thatneed not everbe actualized.There is no "real" violencenecessaryhere,onlythe threatof real violence.The violenceof Queer Nation in thisexampleis themomentwhenwhatFoucault calls the"reversediscourse" becomes somethingelse, somethingmore than simply"homosexualitybeginningto talk on its own behalf."'4The reversediscourse gatherssteam,acquiresdensityuntilit is in excess of the categoryit purportsto articulate.The excess is the disruptionof identityand the violence of powerand the powerof representation; it is dis-integrational; the excess is QUEER.

thepowerof whatAudreLorde calls Imaginedviolencedisintegrates "the mythicnorm"'5and whatDavid Wojnarowiczdescribesas the "ONE TRIBE NATION." It challenges,in otherwords,hegemonicdefinition and of hegemonyitself.In Close totheKnives:A Memoirof even thedefinition Wojnarowiczwritesabout being queer in the age of AIDS: Disintegration, "We'resupposedto quietlyand politelymakehouse in thiskillingmachine called americaand pay taxes to supportour own slow murderand I am amazed thatwe're not runningamok in the streets"(108). Wojnarowicz writesof murderousdesiresand desiresformurder;he calls forbloody and violentchangeand he does so in whathe calls "the languageof disFor Wojnarowicz,languageitselfbecomes a weapon,a tool, integration." and a technologyand the act of imaginationbecomes a violentact. In Wojnarowicz'sessays,he imaginesa violence generatedby HIV+ bodies and transforms theAIDS-stricken body intoa symbolof postmodernpolitics.The PersonWithAIDS, thejunkie,thehomelessperson,thequeerin Americahave thepower,as Wojnarowiczsays,"to wakeyou up and welcome you to your bad dream" (82), or the power to completelyand utterlyalterthe contoursof the real and to reshape theminto realized nightmares. countersthe slow decline Wojnarowicz's"memoirof disintegration" of the body with speed, physicaland mentalspeed. Life speeds up as timewindsdown and thecar travelingacross an open landscapebecomes a symbolforWojnarowiczof desire withoutan object and of a kind of or auto-mobility. The automopleasurein self-propulsion masturbatory bile here signifiespreciselythe movementof the self,the multiplicity of

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for responsibility the articulating relationship betweenfantasy and reality from womento men.

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theselfas it disintegrates withintherealmofthebodilyand proliferates in the realmof fantasy.Fantasy,the safestsex of all, avoids physicalcontaminationbut it contaminatesnonetheless.It contaminatesby making in otherwords,is transmitted via images information viral;information, whichenterlanguageand mutate. "Americanscan't deal withdeathunlesstheyown it" (35), saysWojnarowiczin referenceto a museum of the atomicbomb. Death, in this memoir,is stasis,the banalityof arrivingat one's destination;it is a full stop, an end to language and speed. Wojnarowicz'sheroes with AIDS to staveoffdeathwithtechnology, attempttherefore writing,or photography.In one scene,theherofilmshis friend'sdead body-here thevideo camera,liketheKing tape,liketheIce-T song,recordsa dangeroustechnovisionof realityin the making.The "real" now is preciselya reel of tape, a memorythatcan be cut, edited,replayed,rewound,paused, or "There is no enlargedor glittering new viewofthenature fast-forwarded. "No of thingsor existence,"writesWojnarowicz. god or angelsbrushing myeyelidswiththeirwings.Hell is a place on earth.Heaven is a place in yourhead" (28-29). his effort to rewindor fastWojnarowicz'slanguageof disintegration, forwardthe real, destroysthe America he calls the ONE TRIBE NATION and it intothe manytribes.Of course,the politicaltacticsof ACT transforms

of discreteidentitiesinto the many UP have involvedthe disintegration identitiesunitedin coalitionagainstthe"viruswhichhas no morals."The ONE TRIBE NATION, Wojnarowicz shows us, is a particularly powerful

but it is one thatcannotwithstandthe impactof a imaginedcommunity, diseasewhich,in thegeographyofitstransmissions, maps out thelimitsof themurderouseffectsofinadequatehealthcare systems,theideidentity, and the breakdownof even of medical institutions, ological investments can be capitalizedon through theunityof theRight.This transformation imagininga violencethatshattersthe complacencythatpreventspeople fromimmediateand spontaneousrevolution."I'm amazed," writesWojnarowicz,"thatwe are notrunningamokin thestreets."Here Wojnarowicz echoes JuneJordan'spoem titled"Poem about My Rights":"We are the wrongpeople/ofthe wrongskinon the wrongcontinentand what/in thehellis everybodybeingso reasonableabout."'6 at whathe sees as a passive Wojnarowicz'sanswerto his frustration nonresponse to the totalitarianismof the ONE TRIBE NATION is to imagine: leftfortheradicalgesI'm beginningto believethatone of thelast frontiers ture is the imagination.At least in my ungovernedimaginationI can fuck somebodywithouta rubber,or I can, in theprivacyof myown skull,douse Helms witha bucketof gasolineand set his putridass on fire.... (120)

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Hell is a place on earth and heaven is a place in your head and I too believe that "one of the last frontiersleftforthe radical gestureis the imagination."I believethatit is by imaginingviolencethatwe can harness the forceof fantasyand transform it intoproductivefear.Wojnarowicz's memoirparticipatesin AIDS activismbecause it confronts theJesseHelms ofAmericawiththepossibilityof violentretaliation; itthreatensprecisely in itspotentiality. It is withthe potentialforviolentresponsefromthe so-called other thatJuneJordanends her poem: "I am not wrong: wrong is not my name/Myname is my own myown my own/andI can't tellyou who the hell set thingsup like this/but i can tellyou thatfromnow on my resistance/mysimpleand daily and nightlyself-determination/may verywell cost you yourlife."This is the returnof thegaze in cinematicterms,the threatofthereturnoftherepressed,an alwaysbloodyand violentre-entry intothe realmof signification. This is the articulationthatsmashesbinarismby refusingtheroleof peacefulactivismand demandsto be heardas the voice thatwill violate-the damage, again, lies in the threatrather than in any specificaction. My resistancemay cost you your life; my answermaysilenceyourquestion;myentryintorepresentation mayerase I control how am over your represented. takes place withinrage, not the rage Jordan's"self-determination" thatexplodes mindlesslyand carelessly,but a quiet rage, tightlyreined, everso preciseand intentupon retribution. "Rights"in thepoem signify not simplylegal rightsbut therightto exist,therightto walkat night,the rightto write,the rightnot to be raped,therightto reply,the rightto be angry,therightto respondwithviolence,therightto lawfullyinhabitand populatea place of rage: Eventonight andI needto takea walkandclear myheadaboutthispoemaboutwhyI can't go outwithout myclothesmyshoes changing mybodyposturemygenderidentity myage mystatusas a womanaloneintheevening... "Poem about My Rights"turnslegal rightsintoa fictionof power:rights do not change wrongsand Jordanis "the wrongsex the wrongage the tunedanger,threatens to transwrongskin,"butthepoem,herexquisitely formwrongsintoviolentand powerfulresistance. BothWojnarowicz'sand Jordan'spoeticthreatsconstitute postmodern revolt-revoltin the arena of representation. This is thepostmoderntactic of ACT UP-the burningof effigies,the carnivalprotestsof art and imagesthatdrivethe scientistsand religiouscreepsintopanic mode. ACT UP chooses symbolicweaponsthatreconstitute the shape and contoursof ImaginedViolence/Oueer Violence

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the real. The rage of David Wojnarowiczand JuneJordanallows each artistto expressfantasiesof violencein waysthatmake queer and black Perhapsmorethananyotherrecentwriters, rage palpable and terrifying. Wojnarowiczand Jordanuse poetic expressionas a scare tactic,as the enunciationof a threat.This is the poetics of rage,expressionthatsugin some formis just aroundthe corner.Of course, geststhatretribution thissounds likecatharsis,a purgingof emotionaffordedby dramaor literaryexpression.Jordanand Wojnarowicz,however,give no such assurance thattheirexpressionsare safelychanneledby findingexpressionin art. Like the activistart of ACT UP demonstrations, Jordan'sand Wojnarowicz'swritingsare more like wake-upcalls and activeprotestthan catharticoutlets. As the distinctionsbetweenthe real and fantasycollapse upon each seems alreadysaturatedwithrealism,as realityis other,as representation I have suggested,is to proacts of theeffect, reconstituted by imagination, We simplydo notknowhow to read imagduce a crisisof spectatorship. of the perniciouseffectsof ined violences:all too oftenrepresentations homophobia,racism,and sexismare collapsedby theviewerintohomophobia, sexism,and racismthemselves.So, forexample,a filmabout a as a racistfilmthatproduces racistwhitecharactermightbe interpreted racialhatred.Or a filmabout a sexistand homophobicpolice department as a homophothatis challengedby outlawlesbiansmightbe interpreted bic filmabout murderousdykes.It is not hardin mylast exampleto find filmBasic Instinct and itis thisfilmthatI want theplotofthecontroversial finallyto concentrateon because Basic Instinctactuallyforegroundsthe relationshipbetweenrealityand representation, imaginedviolence and themaintenanceof law and orderas majorthemes. torethroughqueer communities. Disagreementsabout Basic Instinct While thefilmseemedto some people to move femaleheroismand cinematiclesbianismto a new and excitingplace, othersviewedBasic Instinct as a dangerousvision of lesbianismas a networkof lesbian murderers. The filmtherefore drew outragedresponsesfromsome membersof the who read it as homophobicand as partof a generalsmear gaycommunity campaignthatHollywoodhas longmaintainedagainstqueers."17 Basic Instinctis indeed a filmwhich weaves a tale of desire and arounda web oflesbiankillers,butitis notat all clearthatthis destruction makesit a homophobicfilm.It became clearratherquicklyin the debates around Basic Instinctthatnot everyonehad the same stakesin attacking the film.The protestswere led by gay men, forexample,and manylesbians involvedin the protestschangedtheirmindsafteractuallyviewing assumedor theorized ofBasic Instinct thefilm.Many of thegayprotesters woventhroughanyand all depictionsof thathomophobiawas intricately

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gaysand lesbiansas killers.The psychopathicqueer,theyclaimed,was a homophobicstandbyin Hollywoodcinema and theytriedto repressthe filmby "givingaway" the endingof the filmand distributing "Catherine Did It" buttons. The buttons,however,merelyunderlinedthemiserablefailureof this traditionaland civildisobedience.Viewersof thefilmwillknow distinctly thatthereis no endingto give away-the film'sconclusionis preciselya question, a question about homophobia,heterosexism,and a question about thepossibilitythatfemaleviolencewilldisruptonce and forall the The ending,moreover,is compulsoryheterosexualresolutionofnarrative. mirroredby the film'sbeginningscene, literally.The filmopens witha shot of a couple havingsex on a bed as seen in the mirroroverthe bed. The cameraslowlymovesdownto fixupon the actualinsteadof themirroredscene and as we enterthefilmic"real" thesex playturnsto murder and the male partnerclimaxesas his loverice-pickshim. This intricate scene introducesthe viewerto both the vexed relationshipbetweenfantasy,image, and realityand to the narrativetrajectoryof the film:what beginsin bed willend in bed and whatbeginsin compulsoryheterosexualityends in murder. The beginningof the filmgivesawaythe ending,but in case thereis anydoubt,Catherineherselfdestroysall narrative suspense.Catherine,we herlifeand itsviolences.Her findout,writesnovelsthatmirrorperfectly firstbook, TheFirstTime,tellsof a youngboywho murdershis parentsby rigginga boatingaccident. Catherine'sparentswere killedin a boating accident.Her second book, Love Hurts,tellsof an agingrock'n' rollstar who is ice-pickedto deathby his mistress.The book thatshe is working on when she meetsMichael Douglas's character,Nick, is called Shooter (Nick's nickname,althoughthereis obviouslya pun here so maybethe filmasksus to read "Shooter" as the "real" name and "Nick" as thenickname) and tellsof a cop who fallsforthe wrongwoman. "How does it end?" asks Douglas nervously."She kills him," answers Catherine. Catherine,indeed, did it, but to give away thatfactabout the filmis to give away nothingbecause narrativeresolutionis not the focus of the film.Like anygood detectivemystery, thisfilmis interestedin interpretation and the twistsand turnsof the relationship betweencrimeand punishment,criminaland detective,violenceand order.The evidence,in this film,is alwaystextualevidence-Catherine's writing-and the work of detectionis alwaysthe sortingof factfromfictionand theinevitableblurringof the two. The gay protesterswiththeir"CatherineDid It" buttonsobviously failedto incorporatethekindof postmodernreadingsof culturethathave invigoratedmanyqueer protests.As C. Carr wrotein the VillageVoice:

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thecriticswereamazingly denseaboutthefilm.Theysaw Gay or straight, daterapewheretherewasmutual,exciting, roughsex.Theysaw"senseless ofa lover, thrill bylesbiansexwhen,in fact,themurder killings" triggered orfather is alwaysoverdetermined.1s husband,brother, Indeed,murderwas no accidentalor gratuitoussubplotin thisfilm;murder was centralnot onlyto the actionbut also to the characteridentifications.Everymaincharacterin thefilmis a murdererand murdercomesto definerelationsbetweenthe charactersand theirjobs, theirfamilies,their lovers.The murderershoweverare differentiated by gender:the men in or in the line of duty;theirsare the filmwho kill do so professionally sanctioned murders. The women-Catherine, her lover Roxie, her Beth-all kill,as C. Carrpointed ambiguousfriendHazel, thepsychiatrist out, husbands,lovers,brothers,or fathers:theykepttheirkillingin the family,theydisownedtheirfamiliesthroughviolentoutbreaks. Roxie killedher brothers,Hazel herwhole family,and the police are stumpedas to whytheywould have done so. The police's inabilityto find motivesforfemalemurdercorrespondsto theirinabilityto figureout the relationbetween Catherine'sfictionand her life. Female aggressionis definedthereforeas unreadable,irrational,insane, motiveless,but it is clear that the filmsuggests a kind of sororityof empathyamong the femalemurderers.They can read each other'smurdersand the chances are thatat least femaleaudiences are all too willingto fillin the blanks whenit comes to establishinga motiveforthemurderofbrothersor husis betweennovels bands. But Catherinealso knowswhatthe relationship and reality-ambiguous,undecidable,negotiable. The veryfactthatBasic Instinctthematizesthe relationshipbetween and realityshould defend againstlinearreadingsof the representation filmwhen it comes to the characters'sexualityor theircriminality. And are furthermore, mirroring relationships continually emphasizedthroughout thefilm:each femalecharacteris mistakenforeveryother,one dresses up as and impersonatesanother,one is killedwhenDouglas confusesher and Catherine.Also, Douglas is played as a distortedmirrorimage of Catherine:he slides evermore clearlyinto a criminalrelationto the law and she mastersand manipulateshis movementsas if he were simplya characterin a scene she has scripted. Catherinecalls attemptsto collapselifeintoartand artintolife"stubutis notbeyondmanipulating theblurred pid." She knowsthedifference linebetweenthemforher own freedomof movement.Similarly, the critwho read it as homophobicand misogynist fallvictim ics of Basic Instinct to thekindof facilereadingof rightand wrong,real and imaginedthatin thisfilmonlythe police are prone to. Collapsingreal and imaginedis a it refusesto read difference, it refusestheinterpretabiltotalizingactivity, 198

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ityof any giventext,and it freezesmeaningwithina staticdynamicof trueor false.This, of course,is notto say thattextsmayneverbe read as sexistor racistor homophobic-of coursetheyare and can be, butto read homophobiawherehomophobiaand sexismare thetargetsof an elaborate and prolongedcritiqueis to misreadthe power of an imaginedviolence and theviolenceof imaginedpower. Imagined violence, as conceptualized in this paper, is the fantasyof unsanctionederuptionsof aggressionfrom"the wrong people, of the thewronggender."We have to be able to wrongskin,thewrongsexuality, and our violence needs to be imaginablebecause the violence imagine powerof fantasyis not to representbut to destabilizethe real. Imagined violencedoes not stop men fromrapingwomenbut it mightmake a man thinktwiceabout whethera woman is goingto blow him away.Imagined violencedoes not advocatelesbianor femaleaggressionbut it mightcombetweenwomenand passivityor feminism plicatean assumedrelationship and pacifism.The imaginedviolence of lesbians against men in Basic Instinctalso recaststhe relationshipbetweengay men and lesbianssince of female gay men may well have been threatenedby the representation violencethatempoweredlesbians.In thisway,imaginedviolencefractured the fictionof an identitypolitics. But unityis not necessarilyto be desired,unityis Wojnarowicz'sone withplatitribe,an imaginedconsensusthatalwayscoversup difference tudes.Let politicsbe postmodernand queer,postidentity and posthuman. a utopic statein which conseImagined violencescreatea potentiality, quences are imminentratherthanactual,thethreatis in the anticipation, not the act. From Ice-T's controversialrock song "Cop Killer" to the feministkillingspreein Thelmaand Louise,fromthe lesbianice-pickerin Basic Instinctto the AIDS-infectedjunkie in Wojnarowicz'sClose to the black womanwho talksback in JuneJorKnivesand the self-determined dan's poem, imaginedviolences challengewhitepowerfulheterosexual and createa culturalcoalitionof postmodernterror. masculinity Notes 1. David Wojnarowicz, "Do Not DoubttheDangerousness ofthe 12-Inch

Politician,"in Close to theKnives:A MemoirofDisintegration (New York:Vintage

Books,1991),160. 2. JuneJordan, "PoemaboutPoliceViolence,"in NamingOurDestiny: New andSelected Poems(NewYork:Thunder'sMouth,1989),84-85. 3. ChuckPhilips,"A Q&A withIce-T aboutRock,Race, and the'Cop

Killer' Furor,"Los AngelesTimes/Calendar, 19 July1992), 7.

4. Ibid.,7.

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5. See San Diego Union,2 May 1992. 6. For an excellentdiscussionof identitypoliticsthatpointstowarda postNature,and Difidentitypolitics,see Diana Fuss, Essentially Speaking:Feminism, ference(New York:Routledge,1989), 97-112. Fuss writes:"While I do believe thatlivingas a gay or lesbianpersonin a post-industrial heterosexistsocietyhas certainpoliticaleffects. . I also believe thatsimplybeinggay or lesbian is not to constitutepoliticalactivism"(101). See also JudithButler,"Imitation sufficient and Gender Subordination,"in Inside/Out:Lesbian Theories,Gay Theories,ed. Diana Fuss (New York:Routledge,1991), 13-31. For a critiqueof identitypoliticsin a different context,see ChandraTalpade Mohanty,"Cartographiesof Struggle:Third WorldWomen and the Politicsof ed. Chandra TalFeminism,"in ThirdWorldWomenand thePoliticsofFeminism, pade Mohanty,Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington:Indiana UniversityPress, 1991). Mohantyuses theidea of "imaginedcommunity"to buildfeministpoliticalalliances: "The idea of imaginedcommunityis usefulbecause it leads us awayfromessentialistnotionsof thirdworldfeministstruggles,suggesting politicalratherthan biologicalor culturalbases foralliance. Thus, it is not color or sex whichconstructsthegroundforthesestruggles.Rather,it is the way we thinkabout race, class, and gender-the politicallinkswe choose to make among and betweenstruggles"(4). 7. Michael Taussig, TheNervousSystem(New Yorkand London: Routledge, 1992), 2. Taussigasks,how do we "writetheNervousSystemthatpasses through us and makes us what we are"? He concludes: ". .. it calls for a mode of writingno

less systematically nervousthantheNS itself-ofwhich,ofcourse,itcannotbutbe thelatestextension,thepenultimate beforelast" (10). version,theone permanently 8. Douglas Crimp and Adam Rolston, eds., AIDS DEMO-GRAPHICS (Seattle:

Bay, 1990), 20. 9. Severaljournalsand magazinesfeatureddebatesforand againstthe representationof femaleviolence. Film Quarterlyhad a featurecalled "The Many Faces of Thelmaand Louise,"whichincludedmostlysympathetic responsesto the filmfromcriticslike Linda Williamsand Carol Clover. Timemagazine had a more openlyhostileforumcalled "Gender Bender: A White Hot Debate over Thelmaand Louise." See Film Quarterly45, no. 1 (Fall 1991), 20-31; Time,24 June1991, 52. 10. See especiallyJohnLeo, "Toxic Feminismon theBig Screen,"U.S. News and WorldReport,10 June 1991, 20. But see also Laura Shapiro,"Women Who Kill Too Much: Is Thelmaand LouiseFeminismor Fascism?" Newsweek,17 June 1991, 63; Fred Bruning,"A Lousy Deal forWomen-And Men," Maclean's, 12 August 1991, 9. 11. JudithButler,"The Force of Fantasy: Feminism,Mapplethorpe,and DiscursiveExcess," differences 2, no. 2 (1990), 106. on theOriginand 12. BenedictAnderson,ImaginedCommunities: Reflections SpreadofNationalism(London: Verso,1983), 15. 13. Lauren Berlantand ElizabethFreeman,"Queer Nationality," boundary2 19, no. 1 (Spring 1992), 162. trans. 14. Michel Foucault, TheHistoryofSexuality,Vol. 1: An Introduction, RobertHurley(New York:Vintage,1980), 101. 15. Audre Lorde, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women RedefiningDifference," in SisterOutsider(Trumansburg,N.Y.: CrossingPress, 1984), 116.

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16. JuneJordan,"Poem about My Rights,"in NamingOur Destiny:New and SelectedPoems(New York:Thunder'sMouth, 1989), 102-5. 17. See ChristopherSharrett,"HollywoodHomophobia," USA Today(July 1992), 93; JaniceC. Simpson,"Out of the CelluloidCloset," Time,6 April 1992, 65; Michelangelo Signorile,"Hollywood Homophobia," The Advocate,5 April 1992, 37; and David Ehrenstein,"Basic Instinct,"TheAdvocate,21 March 1992, 87. In Ehrenstein'sarticle,his obvious disgustat the infamousSharon Stone crotchshotrevealedthatmisogynyplayeda ratherlargepartin gaymale journalists' rejectionof the film. 18. C. Carr, "Ice Pick Envy:ReclaimingOur Basic Rights,"VillageVoice,28 April 1992, 35-36.

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