This piece in The Nation is ostensibly linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is so two weeks ago. The pandemic is straining the concept of the family, and it’s time to break it and … replace it with something way better.
The family as we know it is an anti-queer factory for producing workers, rife with power asymmetries and violence, and the sole source of love, care, and protection against the brutalization of the police, the market, work, and racism, many of us have got. https://t.co/rF8THnVhzX
— The Nation (@thenation) June 3, 2020
The piece is by Sophie Lewis, and you’d never guess, but she’s a feminist theorist based in Philadelphia and the author of “Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family.” So with what are we to replace the family? Maybe we’re just being obtuse here, but we still picture the family as a man and a woman living with the children they had together. Sure there are other forms, but it seems to have formed organically. Lewis explains:
Amid the turmoil of Covid, unsurprisingly, oracular thinkers of the home and household are suddenly in high demand. I have received a dozen requests myself, for comment on the future of domestic arrangements, post-pandemic. This is because, in March 2019, the leftist publishing house Verso Books launched my book Full Surrogacy Now, a call for “the gestational commune,” which I hoped might contribute to a revival of queer utopianism inspired by the Marxist rallying cry “Abolish the family.”
…
Our idea is to rethink presently existing family forms; this means, to quote [Michelle] O’Brien, “preservation and emancipation of the genuine love and care proletarian people have found with each other in the midst of hardship: the fun and joy of eroticism; the intimacy of parenting and romance.”
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She’s serious that she’s received a dozen requests for this?
what does this even mean
— Sam thinks ACAB (@SamtheObserver) June 3, 2020
Did a thesaurus write this?
— Corn Pop (@gravyfist) June 4, 2020
that sentence is like a fish that got out of the tank and is gasping for air
— Unit Pro-Link (@MitchyDelta) June 3, 2020
I did not think it was possible to fit every lazy Twitter cliche inside a single tweet. Well done.
— CT Jeremy (@CriticallyTouch) June 4, 2020
Is there an auto buzzword feature on your editing software?
— The Badger ⚜ (@CajunBenShapiro) June 4, 2020
I too just hit the next word on predictive text after loading all the new SJW terms
— Anonymous Source (@Anonsource7) June 4, 2020
Did you fill out social justice mad libs for this tweet?
— BPJ (@bpjauburn) June 4, 2020
Is that a direct quote from an evil spirit?
— Frank Pages (@FrankPages3) June 4, 2020
"Family is bad," is a ridiculous message that appeals to literally no one outside weird corners of the internet and academia, so naturally this is what the left is gonna go with
— AdversaryBot (@BotAdversary) June 3, 2020
The new social order is in large part about breaking down the family, which is the only meaningful association most people have. It will encounter major resistance.
— jeffrey churchill (@chilljat) June 4, 2020
I’ll kick mine out on the street then. This anti queer worker factory is now closed. Thanks @thenation.
— Simon Smart (@warriorprotocol) June 4, 2020
I love my fellow gun-club members as family. If you want my love, buy a gun and join me.
— The International ? (@lotekzed) June 4, 2020
Bruh
— Fired up Fed ? (@fedtanyl) June 3, 2020
That's deep. pic.twitter.com/7ONU8ncX8K
— Solen’Ya (@JerichoDank) June 4, 2020
— ??CherCee?? #KAG (@CherCee59) June 4, 2020
Wow, this is impressively stupid. 🙂
— ?? The?FOO ?? (@PolitiBunny) June 4, 2020
— Shaya Tenenbaum (@Shaya10) June 4, 2020
Someone got told to clean their room.
— Sasha Fennec (@fennec_sasha) June 4, 2020
There’s no way this wasn’t typed on a keyboard purchased by the CIA
— Great Lakes Alpha (@GreatLakesAlpha) June 3, 2020
How do you do, fellow parody account!
— Babylon Bee PitchBot™ (@bee_pitch) June 3, 2020
Grandma killer.
— Alex Didion (@lackoftaste) June 3, 2020
Your parents love you and you should call more often.
— mitrebox (@mitrebox) June 4, 2020
My word. I’d hate to live in your head.
— Nancy (@SameOldNancy) June 4, 2020
Demand a refund for your college education
— N'Wahs With Attitude (@Serp3n) June 4, 2020
Humanities Departments, take a bow! ?
— Shaun Solo (@shaunsolo111) June 4, 2020
Ah Marxism at its most brutal I see
— Gigachad Shoebill (@Salomonrondon68) June 4, 2020
This is communist propaganda. Literally.
— 2A Philosophy (@2aPhilosophy) June 4, 2020
It will only be true socialism if we are all wearing identical grey Mao suits, drinking soylent for nutrition, soma for recharging and raising our test tube babies on kinder-ranches. Don’t see it happening, but what a beautiful dream!
— DSA Hague Congress NOW Caucus (@2020_fdr) June 3, 2020
The family as we know it is a factory to produce a decent civil productive society. Anything less than that produces garbage.
— BicycleBelle? (@BicycleBelle00) June 4, 2020
The family unit is one of the most culturally important ideas in the world so I'm calling bullshit on this propagandist word salad of a sentence and article.
— ??????? ????? (@StopAndDecrypt) June 4, 2020
This person is actually evil. Not wrong…evil.
— Crypto Springer (@JwBCrypto) June 4, 2020
This is profoundly evil.
— Tim (@Tim62121077) June 4, 2020
It doesn't get any more evil than this, folks
— Grinnin_bearett (@Grinnin_BEARett) June 4, 2020
This is really smart and true thank you so much for doing what you do
— HealthGoth2020 (@video_rap) June 3, 2020
THANK YOU, it's about time someone expresses what we've all been thinking all these years.
— TRich (@TRichUtah) June 4, 2020
Delete this.
— Justus "259" Eapen (@justuseapen) June 4, 2020
I actually tried to read the article, and yes it’s as bad as the title
— Ian Albert (@Ian4Barrett) June 4, 2020
This ain't it
— Gabriel Burkett (@SurlyGabe) June 3, 2020
Thank you for reminding me how much the people I am voting against hate me, my family, and everything I love.
— Midnight Chow (@midnightchow) June 3, 2020
The Nation, November 4, 2020: “How Could Trump Possibly Have Won Again?!”
— Eric Cervone (@ericcervone) June 4, 2020
Like the Democrats keep saying, the COVID-19 pandemic has created some great opportunities for them, though we didn’t see the destruction of the family as one.
Related:
VIP » Hot take from David Brooks: The small, detached nuclear family has been a catastrophe for just about everyone https://t.co/FecmjYrAAh
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) February 12, 2020
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