Sean Cardenas POSC 395i—Politics Through Culture Second Paper Monday, November 18, 2013

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“Politics,” that is the question of ‘what is political,’ is a very tricky word that is

quite subjective. Politics, as a concept, is a discourse that is unique to humans and their culture. If a human did not have culture, he does not have politics. That is to say, politics— and the question of what is political—is the realness of what is constructed from institutionalization, in any culture and society. Politics is a practice and discourse in which humans created—there is nothing innate about politics.

Now, to say politics is “effective” is real—it is a real statement that has real

effects on people and society. There are effective politics and there are ineffective politics—both being relative and subjective viewpoints. The existence of effective politics means that there is an existence of ineffective politics.

Identity politics is a broad discourse of human identity and the way in which

society has constructed norms and intelligibility of societal norms. This discourse has constructed identities where people, somehow, resonate and associate themselves with the cultural interpretations of the constructed identities. For example, homosexuality is an identity where people tend to have sexual, intimate and romantic relations with those who perform the same gender norms. Gender is a cultural performance, not an innate characteristic of humanity, and therefore, the politics of gender and sexuality is more effective when destroyed rather than asserted.

I argue a case, specifically on gender (as an identity), and how undoing and deconstructing gender as a discourse and a social construct is more effective, politically, than asserting it as a truth.

Many people speak of gender, write about gender, and make laws on gender, as if it was something substantive, tangible, examinable and factual. Gender is none of the above. One cannot substantively label someone else a specific gender and claim that it is

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a truth. One cannot scientifically observe gender, examine the characteristics, and come to a hypothesis in which there will eventually be an