Guy Hocquenghem and the Radical Reimagining of Queer Life

Guy Hocquenghem (1946–1988) was one of the first openly Gay intellectuals to articulate a radically political theory of sexuality. Writing at the intersection of Marxism, psychoanalysis, and post-1968 revolutionary politics, Hocquenghem rejected both liberal identity politics and assimilationist gay rights, arguing instead that homosexuality exposes the repressive foundations of capitalist, familial, and state power. In Homosexual Desire (1972), he builds upon and critiques Freud and Deleuze–Guattari to frame desire as a collective, anti-normative force that is neither reducible to identity nor pathology, insisting that sexuality cannot be liberated without dismantling the social and economic structures that regulate it. Hocquenghem’s work remains provocative for its refusal of respectability, its critique of the nuclear family as a technology of social control, and its insistence that queer politics must remain antagonistic rather than integrative. #lilactimeattherodeo #ParisLights #markoconnellstudio #queerhistory #Hocquenghem #Queerstory

Guy Hocquenghem (1946–1988) En Français

Guy Hocquenghem (1946–1988) fut l’un des premiers intellectuels ouvertement gays à formuler une théorie radicalement politique de la sexualité. Écrivant à l’intersection du marxisme, de la psychanalyse et des politiques révolutionnaires de l’après-1968, Hocquenghem rejetait à la fois les politiques identitaires libérales et les revendications assimilationnistes des droits homosexuels, soutenant au contraire que l’homosexualité révèle les fondements répressifs du pouvoir capitaliste, familial et étatique. Dans Le Désir homosexuel (1972), il prolonge et critique Freud ainsi que Deleuze et Guattari afin de penser le désir comme une force collective et anti-normative, irréductible à l’identité comme à la pathologie, affirmant que la sexualité ne peut être libérée sans le démantèlement des structures sociales et économiques qui la régulent. L’œuvre de Hocquenghem demeure provocante par son refus de la respectabilité, sa critique de la famille nucléaire en tant que technologie de contrôle social, et son insistance sur le fait que la politique queer doit rester antagoniste plutôt qu’intégrative. #lilactimeattherodeo #ParisLights #markoconnellstudio #queerhistory #Hocquenghem #Queerstory

Cosmetics, Glamour and AIDS: Way Bandy, Scott Barrie and Halston

Sartorial Society Series – London, England

On Thursday, July 1st at 1:00 pm (Toronto time), Dr. Mark Joseph O’Connell delivered a compelling lecture titled “Cosmetics, Glamour and AIDS: Way Bandy, Scott Barrie and Halston” as part of the Sartorial Society Series in London, England.

Drawing on material from his book Lilac Time at the Rodeo: Stories of Identity, AIDS & Fashion, Dr. O’Connell explored the intersections of beauty, fashion, and queer identity during the late twentieth century, a period profoundly shaped by the AIDS crisis. The lecture examined how cosmetics and glamour functioned not merely as aesthetic choices, but as tools of self-fashioning, resistance, and visibility within a community facing devastating loss and systemic neglect.

Through the lives and work of legendary figures Way Bandy, Scott Barrie, and Halston, Dr. O’Connell illuminated the cultural power of makeup and style in shaping both personal identity and public perception. These figures were positioned not only as tastemakers of their era, but as participants in a broader narrative about creativity, intimacy, and survival amid crisis.

Leonardo da Vinci

This lecture examines Queer artist Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings and artistic techniques, focusing on how he used observation, line, and experimentation to rethink the human body, movement, and nature. By tracing how drawing functioned as a site of inquiry rather than preparation alone, the lecture reveals how da Vinci’s technical innovations emerged from sustained looking, revision, and curiosity. The session offers audiences new ways to understand drawing as both a practical tool and a mode of thinking central to da Vinci’s art.

Liminal Lynchian Spaces: Colour, Interior & Fashion in David Lynch’s Cinematic Oeuvre

Liminal Lynchian Spaces: Colour, Interior & Fashion in David Lynch’s Cinematic Worlds

What makes a David Lynch film feel so hauntingly surreal? In this lecture, Dr. Mark Joseph O’Connell examines how Lynch’s distinctive use of colour, interior design, and fashion constructs psychologically charged cinematic worlds that resist fixed meaning and stable identity.

While David Lynch was heterosexual, his films repeatedly occupy a queer positionality: a perspective marked by ambiguity, disorientation, doubling, and the refusal of normative narratives. Through liminal spaces, fractured identities, and unstable visual codes, Lynch’s cinema queers perception itself, unsettling binaries of self/other, inside/outside, and desire/repression.

From the red curtains of Twin Peaks’ Red Room to the enigmatic blue box of Mulholland Drive, this lecture unpacks the aesthetic strategies that produce Lynch’s uncanny atmospheres. Colour operates as an emotional and psychological trigger, interiors function as sites of transformation and threat, and fashion becomes a semiotic system through which identity is performed, fractured, or concealed.

Focusing on Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Drive, the lecture explores the role of the uncanny in Lynch’s mise-en-scène, the destabilizing power of liminal interiors, and the ways wardrobe and surface aesthetics articulate queerness without explicit representation. Together, these elements reveal how Lynch’s cinematic worlds operate as spaces of perpetual becoming, where identity is fluid, desire is opaque, and meaning remains unsettlingly unresolved.