A review by dillarhonda
Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories by Elizabeth Freeman

In Time Binds, Elizabeth Freeman posits that much of queer life is a kind of temporal drag. That through consciously enacting gender or sexuality and through the jagged seams between these ideas, time itself warps. She writes: “By ‘time binds,’ I mean…that naked flesh is bound into socially meaningful embodiment through temporal regulation: binding is what turns mere existence into a form of mastery in a process I’ll refer to as chrononormativity. Pointing out that time itself has been bound to capitalism through an insistence on productivity, Freeman suggests queer joy and queer eroticism are ways of moving through oppression. Ending with an exploration of the time-bending powers of S&M culture, she illuminates how typical S&M scenarios can be read through the multiple lenses of time, race, power, and eroticism. ⠀