The subject of this article is to explore how biopolitical frameworks can be used to study and understand the ways in which different forms of governmental power operate over the bodies, identities, and freedoms of queer individuals. Biopolitics refers to the political regulation of life itself, encompassing both its natural conditions and social processes, and has been used extensively within critical theory to interrogate the relationship between the state and citizenship, particularly in relation to issues such as healthcare, migration, and security.
Less attention has been paid to how it can help illuminate the governance of queer lives.
I will outline some key concepts from Foucault's work that are relevant to understanding queer politics. According to him, power operates through discourse, creating truths about what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior and shaping subjects in accordance with these norms. These regimes of truth are constructed through various institutional mechanisms, including laws, administrative practices, and cultural norms. He also argues that power is not static but constantly shifting, responding to changes in society and controlling populations through technologies of control. This analysis can help us see how heteronormative institutions like marriage, family, and gender roles have been used to discipline sexuality and marginalize non-normative identities, but it falls short in accounting for how other systems of power operate beyond the nation-state.
One approach that offers more insight into systemic governance is Agamben's notion of bare life, which he defines as that which exists outside the law and cannot be subject to any form of representation or incorporation.
Migrants or refugees may be denied access to citizenship and thus become stateless, rendering them effectively invisible to the state while still being subject to its violence. Similarly, many countries criminalize homosexuality, making LGBTQ+ individuals vulnerable to police brutality and state persecution even if they do not break any other laws. By examining how biopolitical frameworks shape the conditions under which certain bodies come into existence and are subjected to different forms of surveillance and control, we can better understand why some lives matter less than others.
Another important concept is Butler's idea of performativity, which describes how identity is produced through repetition and enactment rather than simply existing prior to discourse. She suggests that there is no natural, essential gayness or transness, but rather these identities are formed through social practices such as coming out and transitioning. This emphasis on embodied experience highlights how queer politics must attend to both institutional structures and lived experiences to achieve liberation.
This does not mean that all performance is political; some identities may be imposed by force without consent or agency.
I will turn to Fassin's work on "biopolitics from below," which focuses on how marginalized populations create their own strategies for survival in the face of state violence. He argues that these tactics of resistance do not simply reject power but instead rework it in ways that challenge dominant narratives about sexuality, gender, and race.
Many LGBTQ+ people have turned to community-building initiatives like Pride parades and health clinics to support each other outside of mainstream institutions. These alternatives demonstrate how systemic governance operates not only through direct repression but also through erasure and invisibility.
Biopolitical frameworks offer a useful way of understanding the complex interplay between systems of governmentality and non-normative bodies, identities, and freedoms. They help us see how different forms of power operate at multiple scales, including the national, international, and local levels, and how they shape individual lives in concrete ways. By attending to these dynamics, we can better identify points of struggle and solidarity across different communities and movements.
How can biopolitical frameworks illuminate systemic governance over queer bodies, identities, and freedoms?
Biopolitics is an approach that explores how power operates through life itself, including the regulation of birth and death, the construction of subjects and their sexuality, and the distribution of resources and risk. This framework highlights the ways in which state policies shape the lives of queer people by controlling their access to medical treatment, family formation, employment opportunities, and social recognition.