Against inflation: queer-feminist monetary (and price) theory

In this essay, I study a hitherto neglected yet central complicity between the reigning logics of monetary governance and heteronormativity. In so doing, my analysis exposes hegemonic assumptions in IPE that often remain unchallenged. Drawing on queer-feminist scholarship, I first argue that heteronormativity is premised on the ideologically conservative claim that gender identity and associated language (abstraction) must be grounded in, and ontologically preceded by, a material biological sex (‘essence’). I then demonstrate that a strikingly similar structure underpins the Monetarist inflation form – defined as an imbalance between the quantity of money (abstraction) and the quantity of goods or services (‘essence’). Employing this homology makes visible how central bank inflation-targeting regimes enact gendered norms that devalue femininely coded domains and cast gender equality as both politically destabilizing and economically unfeasible. This essay seeks to queer monetary policy by highlighting the intersections between gendered ontology and IPE, contributing to the literature on anti-essentialism and demand management. Finally, I propose a non-essentialist approach to price stability, which I intend to develop further in future work.