Becoming Woman: Or Sexual Difference Revisited

Abstract

This article revisits Irigaray's theory of sexual difference in the light of more contemporary developments in terms of nomadic becomings and non-unitary subjectivity, especially in Deleuze. It defends the notion of embodied materiality on philosophical grounds, by linking it to the issues of power, access, hegemony and exclusion, which are central to post-structuralism. Through a detailed analysis of the sexual politics of difference feminism, the author argues for a non-reactive redefinition of the feminine as a project of becoming, and connects it firmly to feminist discussions about gender and queer theory.

Fragment urbanism: Politics at the margins of the city

“…Grosz finds in Deleuze's thought, for example, not a rejection of rights and identity politics -Deleuze and Guattari recognise in A Thousand Plateaus, for instance, that such a politics remains vital -but an insistent pressure to push beyond rights to break into new ways of being and relating that do not fix and freeze categories like 'woman' (Deleuze, 2001(Deleuze, [1968). If left to a politics of rights and recognition alone, the category of woman can become a knot that may not just strengthen but fix, that both enables and closes off possibilities (Braidotti, 2003;Colls, 2012;Irigaray, 2004). Such a position -a politics of becoming that works with and beyond recognition -is not without its challenges, as Grosz recognises.…”

Moving Forward: A Feminist Analysis of Mobile Music Streaming

“…Subjectification in mobile music streaming is here seen as both discursive, creating meaning through already existing systems of signification, and material, a sensory and physical experience. In order to understand the relation between discourse and materiality Rosi Braidotti (2003) suggests that subjectification, the process of "becoming-woman", involves material bodies as well as discursive ideas. Braidotti (2003: 60) argues that embodiment is an interconnected material process where encounters and relations with others are keys to its' becoming, while the process of becoming is also interconnected with symbolic forces.…”

Don’t Be Mistaken—This Does Concern You!

“…It would never be the same again. Similar to how the taste of a new drink changes while the ice is melting or the molecules are settling at the bottom of the glass or when the liquid is traveling through the throat, the merger between poststructuralist premises on the female subject (Braidotti, 1991(Braidotti, , 2003Gannon & Davies, 2007) and writing as method of inquiry and act of realization (Pelias, 2011;Richardson, 1997Richardson, , 2000Richardson & St. Pierre, 2005) takes place.…”