ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses connections between systems of heteronormativity, patriarchy, and cisgender normativity abound, as do opportunities for shared struggle by those affected by them in disparate ways. It describes examples of connections between systems that could seem discrete, challenges and contradictions that can arise in building shared struggle against these systems, and a few of the many possible lenses one might apply to analyze them. The chapter explores politics as verb, as practice–rather than a politics where people are necessarily assumed to share priorities based on certain conceptions of an essential identity–is not intended to denigrate struggles and politics in which notions of shared identity have been a powerfully galvanizing factor. The material base of patriarchy is men’s control over women’s labor power. Like patriarchy, heteronormativity signifies a system. As may be becoming clearer, the words patriarchy, cisnormativity, and heteronormativity describe systems of power that are in certain ways partially distinct.
