• Heterofatalism and Other Anesthetic Feelings
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  • 11 December 2019
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  • A talk by Asa Seresin
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  • This talk examines iterations of heterofatalism - expressions of negativity and hopelessness about heterosexuality made by straight people - in contemporary culture and media. It reads heterofatalism as part of a wave of anesthetic emotion, a mode of feeling prompted by the economic, political, and ecological crises of the present. From misogynistic celibacy subcultures to teenage girls dancing to voicemails left by their abusive exes on TikTok, anesthesia is taking an increasingly theatrical form in the contemporary straight world. Reading these cultural objects against the history of feminist theorization of heterosexuality in the 1970s and '80s, shows that critical thought about straight experience has consistently taken place in the form of autofiction, illuminating a surprising intimacy between consciousness-raising and memes. What can this tell us about the possible futures of heterosexual culture?
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