Body and Language: Butler, Merleau-Ponty and Lyotard on the Speaking Embodied Subject

Vasterling, V.L.M.

doi:10.1080/0967255032000074190

Cited by 21 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The work of Judith Butler (1990 and 1993) has been extremely influential in this movement, challenging the assumption that binary sex/gender is a natural or given division, and arguing that bodies are constructed as male and female through the repeated ‘performance’ of certain discursive practices – gender . Butler's denaturalisation of the categories of sex and sexuality opens the ontological domain to ‘questions of power’, raising the political question as to whether there are hegemonic conventions which legitimise some bodies over others (Vasterling, 2003, p. 209). At the same time, Butler's work offers the possibility of resistance, suggesting that the social meanings of sex/gender can be resisted, challenged and, eventually, transformed.…”

Section: Feminism: An Institutional ‘Turn’mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, Institutions and Power: A Critical Review

2007

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Both feminist and mainstream political science has taken an institutional ‘turn’, opening up possibilities for interchange between the two fields. This article explores the potential for theoretical synthesis between feminist gender analysis and new institutional theory, focusing particularly on issues of power. After providing a brief overview of approaches to power in the institutionalist and feminist literature, it outlines some initial possibilities for dialogue between the two fields. The article concludes by considering some potential insights that a gendered approach to institutions and power would offer to new institutionalism, establishing a preliminary foundation for a wider ‘feminist institutionalist’ research agenda.

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Section: Feminism: An Institutional ‘Turn’mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, Institutions and Power: A Critical Review

2007

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“…Rather than characterizing Butler's theories as discursive monism, Vasterling uses the term “epistemological linguisticism” to describe her viewpoint, which is not without its own problems. See Vasterling , in particular 209f.…”

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confidence: 99%

Language and the Gendered Body: Butler's Early Reading of Merleau‐Ponty

Foultier¹

2013

Hypatia

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Through a close reading of Judith Butler's 1989 essay on Merleau‐Ponty's “theory” of sexuality as well as the texts her argument hinges on, this paper addresses the debate about the relation between language and the living, gendered body as it is understood by defenders of poststructural theory on the one hand, and different interpretations of Merleau‐Ponty's phenomenology on the other. I claim that Butler, in her criticism of the French philosopher's analysis of the famous “Schneider case,” does not take its wider context into account: either the case study that Merleau‐Ponty's discussion is based upon, or its role in his phenomenology of perception. Yet, although Butler does point out certain blind spots in his descriptions regarding the gendered body, it is in the light of her questioning that the true radicality of Merleau‐Ponty's ideas can be revealed. A further task for feminist phenomenology should be a thorough assessment of his philosophy from this angle, once the most obvious misunderstandings have been put to the side.

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“…In this essay, I view agency from a perspective that distinguishes it in the ontological sense of how a human subject lives through her or his situation (Vasterling 2003) from freedom as a capacity to co‐create (and transform) one's situation. From this perspective, there is no paradox in the idea of a female agency that reproduces or reentrenches rather than overcomes domination, coercion, or victimization 4 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Toward a Phenomenology of Sex-Right: Reviving Radical Feminist Theory of Compulsory Heterosexuality

Miriam¹

2007

Hypatia

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In this essay, Miriam argues for a phenomenological-hermutic approach to the radical feminist theory of sex-right and compulsory heterosexuality. Against critics of radical feminism, she argues that when understood from a phenomenologicalhermeneutic perspective, such theory does not foreclose female sexual agency. On the contrary, men's right of sexual access to women and girls is part of our background understanding of heteronmtivity , and thus integral to the lived experience of female sexual agency.In 2004, a special issue of the Journal of Women's History devoted itself to Adrienne Rich's landmark 1986 essay, "The Lesbian Continuum and Compulsory Heterosexuality." As a contributor to this volume, Rich reflects critically, from the perspective of twenty-three years, on the shortcomings of her essay. While expressing ambivalence about the concept of the "lesbian continuum," she remains convinced of the "lasting usefulness" of her critique of the heterosexual presumption. She writes, "That new generations of young women have met with that critique for the first time in my essay only indicates how deeply the presumption still prevails" (10).My own encounters, in the past five years, with college-age women and men confirm Rich's remarks. Seasoned by mass media circulating "normal" and "likeable" images of gays and lesbians and to some degree enlightened by the educational efforts of GLBT groups on campus, many of the young people I teach hold the liberal attitude that gays and lesbians "are just like everyone else." Yet despite this spirit of tolerance for gays and lesbians, the heterosexual Hypatia vol. 22, no.

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Body and Language: Butler, Merleau-Ponty and Lyotard on the Speaking Embodied Subject

Cited by 21 publications

References 8 publications

Gender, Institutions and Power: A Critical Review

Gender, Institutions and Power: A Critical Review

Language and the Gendered Body: Butler's Early Reading of Merleau‐Ponty

Toward a Phenomenology of Sex-Right: Reviving Radical Feminist Theory of Compulsory Heterosexuality

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