In his essay, “Pedro Zamora’s Real World of Counterpublicity,” José Muñoz imagines “an ethic of the minoritarian self” (144): working on the self for others, in an effort to facilitate the development of real, autonomous minoritarian (counterpublic) subjectivities. Muñoz contends that disidentification can be used as a tool for achieving this ethic. In my understanding, disidentification is the means by which minority individuals recognize themselves as self-determining subjects, through recognizing and resisting dominant majoritarian ideology. Acts of counterpublicity (a mode of disidentification) have the potential to disrupt majoritarian scripts by “[publicizing] and [theatricalizing] an ethics of the self” (147). However, Muñoz qualifies this idea by acknowledging that some “representations of counterpublicity are robbed of any force by … the ‘marketplace of multicultural pluralism” (147).
Muñoz’s consideration of counterpublicity as a means of achieving “an ethic of the minoritarian self” provides insight into the political value of LGBTQ+ pride parades. In some ways, pride parades constitute acts of counterpublicity: LGBTQ+ people disrupt majoritarian scripts by openly expressing and celebrating their sexualities and identities in public spaces, which are usually presumed to be heterosexual (and cisgender) by default. Participants performatively affirm their own subjectivities, recognizing and playing with hegemonic ideas about sexuality, gender, normalcy, and propriety. They are performing their selves for others, and their audience includes minoritarian and majoritarian groups. However, in other ways, pride parades do not subvert hegemonic ideology, and may actually reinforce it. Many LGBTQ+ people criticize pride parades because they are capitalist (corporate sponsors increasingly dominate parades), they reinforce what some people view as negative stereotypes about LGBTQ+ people, and they tend to be dominated by middle-class white cis gay men (and even straight cis people). A new counterpublic has now emerged in response to the original counterpublicity: people have begun to stage alternative pride events, and even protest mainstream pride parades. This highlights the conundrum of disidentification (and revolution generally): once a counterpublic practice or group achieves positive recognition/acceptance in majoritarian discourses and society, it is no longer revolutionary.