ABSTRACT
The queercore cultural artifacts explored in this chapter rely on an envisioning of violence and, arguably, at their most successful, enable the transformation from fantasy to "productive fear" that Halberstam advocates in "Imagined Violence/Queer Violence". The zines of Johnny Noxzema challenge heterosexuals and homosexuals alike with the possibility of "bashing back". The music and on-stage performances of Tribe threaten heteropatriarchy with the very sexual humiliation and abuse that women and transpeople experience all over the world. The artworks of Leslie Mah, Margarita Alcantara and the Full-On Asian Action collective confront racism with the frightening prospect of retribution. These works offer a warning to normative wrongdoers of potential retribution to come as well as a hope to sexual and racial minorities for a different, more emboldened future. These works may alter the heteronormative status quo; they provide sustenance to the queercore's participants as they work through the pain and humiliation of life in a homophobic, sexist, transphobic and racist society.
