Bodies and pleasures : Foucault and the politics of sexual normalization

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Bodies and pleasures : Foucault and the politics of sexual normalization

Ladelle McWhorter

Indiana University Press, c1999

  • : cloth
  • : pbk

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Bodies & pleasures

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Note

"Philosophy, gender studies"--Back cover

Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-255) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780253213259

Description

Sexual identities are dangerous, Michel Foucault tells us. Categories of desire harden into stereotypes by which the forces of normalization hold us and judge us. In Bodies and Pleasures, Ladelle McWhorter reads Foucault from an original and personal angle, motivated by the differences this experience has made in her life. At the same time, her analysis advances discussion of key issues in Foucault scholarship: the genealogical critique, the status of the subject and humanism, essentialism versus social construction, and the relationships between identity, community, and political action. Weaving her own experience of coming to grips with her lesbian sexual identity into her readings of Foucault's most recent writings on sexuality and power, McWhorter argues compellingly that Foucault's texts should be read less for the arguments they advance and more for their transformative effect. By exploring bodies and pleasures-gardening, line dancing, or doing philosophy, for example-McWhorter shows that it isn't necessary to conform with socially recognized sexual identities. Bodies and Pleasures takes the reader beyond unexplored norms and imposed identities as it points the way toward a personal politics, ethics, and style that challenges our sexual selves.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations Introduction: Foucault's Impact: Challenges and Transformations Ch. 1: Views from the Site of Political Oppression: Or, How I served as an Anchor Point for Power and Emerged as a Locus of Resistance Ch. 2: Genealogical Diversions: Wherein the Ascetic Priestess Loses Her Way and Begins to Wander Aimlessly Through Dem Ole Cotton Fields Back Home Ch. 3: Why I Shouldn't Like Foucault . . . So They Say Ch. 4: Disorientation: Or, Beyond Sex-Desire Ch. 5: Natural Bodies: Or, Ain't Nobody Here But Us Deviants Ch. 6: Self-Overcoming Through Ascetic Pleasures Ch. 7: Counterattack: An Ethics of Style Inconclusion Notes Index
Volume

: cloth ISBN 9780253335586

Description

Sexual identities are dangerous, Michel Foucault tells us. Categories of desire harden into stereotypes by which the forces of normalization hold us and judge us. In "Bodies and Pleasures", Ladelle McWhorter reads Foucault from an original and personal angle, motivated by the differences this experience has made in her life. At the same time, her analysis advances discussion of key issues in Foucault scholarship: the genealogical critique, the status of the subject and humanism, essentialism versus social construction, and the relationships between identity, community, and political action.Weaving her own experience of coming to grips with her lesbian sexual identity into her readings of Foucault's most recent writings on sexuality and power, McWhorter argues compellingly that Foucault's texts should be read less for the arguments they advance and more for their transformative effect. By exploring bodies and pleasures - gardening, line dancing, or doing philosophy, for example - McWhorter shows that it isn't necessary to conform with socially recognized sexual identities. "Bodies and Pleasures" takes the reader beyond unexplored norms and imposed identities as it points the way toward a personal politics, ethics, and style that challenges our sexual selves.

Table of Contents

  • AbbreviationsIntroduction: Foucault's Impact: Challenges and Transformations 1: Views from the Site of Political Oppression: Or, How I served as an Anchor Point for Power and Emerged as a Locus of Resistance 2: Genealogical Diversions: Wherein the Ascetic Priestess Loses Her Way and Begins to Wander Aimlessly Through Dem Ole Cotton Fields Back Home 3: Why I Shouldn't Like Foucault ... So They Say 4: Disorientation: Or, Beyond Sex-Desire 5: Natural Bodies: Or, Ain't Nobody Here But Us Deviants 6: Self-Overcoming Through Ascetic Pleasures 7: Counterattack: An Ethics of StyleInconclusionNotes
  • Index

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