Yugoslav army and homosexual innuendo
anecdote · personal/autobiographical ·
retold in 9 talks
The army was explicitly homophobic (discovered homosexuals beaten), yet daily life was saturated with homosexual innuendo, 'I'll smoke yours' as morning greeting. The explicit prohibition was sustained by pervasive implicit reference to what it prohibited.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 10
“The explicit prohibition was sustained by a kind of a permanent reference to some kind of a thwarted implicit homosexuality.”
“we didn't say to each other good morning but smoke mine, vulgar expression for smoke my prick, fellatio and so on”
“yugoslav army was, as all armies, probably absolutely homophobic... but at the same time crucial absolutely crucial. the entire life was totally penetrated by homosexual innuendos”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 3 jobsuses
obscene underside
×2
inherent transgression
×2
obscene supplement
×2
Its cast and sources
populated by
Julius Rosenberg2Paul Robeson2Wolf Biermann3Ágota Kristóf2Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak2Mary Shelley2Père Joseph (François Leclerc du Tremblay)2Lavrentiy Beria2
alongside works
Every retelling 10
The army was explicitly homophobic (discovered homosexuals beaten), yet daily life was saturated with homosexual innuendo, 'I'll smoke yours' as morning greeting. The explicit prohibition was sustained by pervasive implicit reference to what it prohibited., illustrating obscene underside,habits,implicit rules
In Žižek's Yugoslav army, soldiers' morning greeting was a vulgar expression for fellatio; officially homophobic, the culture was entirely saturated with homoeroticism, proving that transgressive obscenity sustains rather than subverts official norms., illustrating inherent transgression,obscene underside of power
Žižek recalls that in the Yugoslav army of the mid-70s, officially thoroughly homophobic, daily life was entirely permeated by homosexual jokes and innuendo, his unit's greeting was an explicit sexual remark. He uses this to illustrate how ideology can function in its own apparent negation., illustrating ideology without belief,sincere hypocrisies,sexuality and ideology
Digital Consortium Lecture - Reality as Materialized Ideology Inaugural lecture by Slavoj Zizekpub. 2021-06-12 · 1:52:09
In the Yugoslav army, official ideology was strictly homophobic, yet daily life was penetrated by homoerotic innuendos (e.g., 'smoke my prick' as a greeting). This shows how violent homophobia coexisted with a space penetrated by homosexual practice/innuendo., illustrating Material Existence of Ideology,Ideological Unconscious
Žižek's unit was explicitly homophobic (gay soldiers were beaten) yet daily life was saturated with homosexual innuendo (the standard greeting was 'smoke my prick'); the explicit homophobia required its obscene supplement to sustain itself., illustrating obscenity in service of power,ideology operates through a supplement
The explicitly homophobic army culture was simultaneously saturated with homosexual jokes and greetings, the prohibition was sustained by constant implicit reference to what was prohibited., illustrating implicit obscene underside,habits and transgression