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The Political Economy of Heteronormativity

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  • Duc Hien Nguyen

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between heteronormativity, queerness, and neoliberal capitalism. By reinterpreting the 1997 Recognition-Redistribution debate between Nancy Fraser and Judith Butler through a social reproduction lens, I show that Butler’s position is broadly consistent with a social reproduction analysis of heteronormativity. Through stabilizing the gender division of labor, promoting the normative heterosexual family, and contributing to the internal stratification within the working class, heteronormativity fulfills critical social-reproductive roles. Queer emancipation, therefore, cannot be realized without an overhaul of the political economic structure. As relations of reproduction change under neoliberal capitalism, what is constituted as queer is also altered in ways that incorporate queerness into capitalist value production. Mainstream narratives of LGBT progress obscure the emerging division between queers with capital and queers without, a division undergirded by familiar contradictions of racialized, heteronormative, reproductive capitalism. JEL Classification : B51, B54, P16

Suggested Citation

  • Duc Hien Nguyen, 2023. "The Political Economy of Heteronormativity," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 55(1), pages 112-131, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:55:y:2023:i:1:p:112-131
    DOI: 10.1177/04866134211011269
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Nancy Folbre, 2023. "Radical Offspring," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 55(1), pages 191-196, March.
    2. Sliacan, Jakub & Cibik, Matej, 2025. "Systemic motonormativity," SocArXiv pbgnx_v1, Center for Open Science.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • B51 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Socialist; Marxian; Sraffian
    • B54 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Feminist Economics
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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