Queer acts of daily care are often overlooked in the dominant discourse of productivity and utility. They challenge the normative values that prioritize efficiency, profitability, and individual achievement over emotional labor and intersubjective connections. By resisting these values, queer acts of daily care can offer new ways of imagining ourselves and our social relations. This article explores how queer acts of daily care subvert the ethics of productivity and utility through three main strategies: redefining work as pleasure, cultivating intimate bonds, and creating alternative spaces for self-expression.
Redefining Work as Pleasure
Queer acts of daily care may involve non-traditional forms of work, such as housework, childcare, and nursing.
Some queers may choose to take care of elderly relatives or friends rather than hire outside help. In doing so, they redefine their relationships as mutual exchanges of support and affection. Rather than focusing solely on duty or obligation, this approach emphasizes pleasure and joy. It also challenges the idea that work is something one does out of necessity rather than choice. As a result, queer acts of daily care create new possibilities for shared leisure activities and collective efforts towards community building.
Cultivating Intimacy
Through daily care, queers can cultivate intimate bonds with others by engaging in acts of tenderness and vulnerability.
Sharing meals together, having conversations about personal matters, or spending time relaxing at home can all foster deep connections. These practices challenge the assumption that intimacy should be limited to romantic partners or close family members. By treating everyone with respect and attention, queer acts of daily care promote empathy and understanding across different groups. They also demonstrate that interdependence and reciprocity are crucial components of human flourishing.
Creating Alternative Spaces for Self-Expression
Queer acts of daily care can create spaces where people can express themselves freely and authentically. This might include hosting gatherings of friends and allies, participating in activist movements, or simply dressing however one wants without fear of judgment. By resisting normative standards of conformity and gender roles, these acts of self-expression affirm the right to individual expression and identity. In doing so, they undermine the binary logic that privileges productivity over pleasure, utility over emotional labor, and competition over cooperation.
Queer acts of daily care offer a radical alternative to the ethics of productivity and utility by redefining work as pleasure, cultivating intimate bonds, and creating alternative spaces for self-expression. These strategies not only provide practical solutions to everyday problems but also offer new ways of imagining ourselves and our social relations. As such, they have the potential to transform society's attitudes towards labor, relationships, and community building.
How do queer acts of daily care resist the ethics of productivity and utility?
Queer acts of daily care are rooted in the desire for pleasure, joy, and happiness instead of productivity and utility. They challenge the dominant paradigm that emphasizes efficiency, effectiveness, and practicality as the only means to achieve success and well-being. Queer practices can be seen as ways to subvert mainstream values by creating new spaces and meanings that celebrate difference and diversity.