Such utopian visions are no longer fashionable; most radical intellectuals have abandoned those metanarratives, such as Marxism, which once promised a better future, and have taken to heart Foucaultʼs view that power is inescapable. We can resist, subvert and destabilize, but nothing much will change; or, if it does, there will be new deployments of power to be resisted, subverted and destabilized. This is a politics of resistance and transgression, but not a politics of radical transformation; its goal is permanent rebellion but never revolutionary change. It is ultimately a pessimistic politics. Of course, optimism is difficult to sustain in the political climate prevailing at turn of the millennium. Holding on to utopian ideals may be more than a little crazy when there seems little prospect of their ever being realized. Yet I believe that it is crucially important, both politically and analytically, that we are at least able to imagine social relations being radically other than they are. If we cannot do this we lose the impetus even to think critically about the world in which we live.
Stevi Jackson, “Heterosexuality, Heteronormativity and Gender Hierarchy: Some Reflections on Recent Debates” in Heterosexuality in Question (1999, London: SAGE Publications Ltd)
