Queer economics: Worlds, appearances and the symbolic exchange

This chapter considers sexuality and sexual orientation as neither an aesthetic phenomenon, expressing a particular ‘sensibility’, nor as a socio-political concern, revealing power relations among publics and institutions, on the one hand, and ‘LGBT identities’, on the other. Instead, sex, sexuality and sexual orientation are explored in relation to economic systems. They emerge not as an identity but as a type of commodity, a process of value creation and a means of assessing economic potential. The discussion follows Alain Badiou’s theory of value, intermittency and ontology, not Marx’s political economy or Freud and Lacan’s psychoanalysis. The argument is based on the idea of transition from the materiality of money-commodity (Marx) to the determination of cognition (Badiou). It lays out the economic aspects of queer world building as an activity which is not neutral in either political or economic terms. The chapter analyses the case of Alexander Gudkov, a Russian comedian, television showman, actor, director and entrepreneur. In particular, the interconnections between mediated and unmediated parts of Gudkov’s queer world are examined.