Post-identity politics and the social weightlessness of radical gender theory

Abstract

This paper examines recent forms of post-identity thought within contemporary gender theory, specifically the works of Rosi Braidotti, Elizabeth Grosz and Bobby Noble. Despite the many insights that these theories offer, I argue that they suffer from what Lois McNay has labelled 'social weightlessness' insofar as their models of subjectivity and agency are disconnected from the everyday realities of social subjects. I identify two ways in which this social weightlessness is manifested in radical gender theories that endorse a post-identity politics: (i) they overlook the social and political importance to many individuals of establishing stable, coherent identities; (ii) they are unable to offer a satisfactory account of agency. I suggest that these issues arise, at least in part, from the anti-recognition stance adopted by such radical gender theorists. I argue that by incorporating a properly nuanced model of recognition back into their theories they can imbue their accounts with a properly grounded model of the subject that is responsive to the inequalities and oppressions that infuse the particular concrete contexts in which we experience and live out our identities.

‘Success in Britain comes with an awful lot of small print’: Greg Rusedski and the precarious performance of national identity

“…Drawn from her study of gender and sexuality in the widely acclaimed, ‘ Gender Trouble ,’ Butler's (1999) work offers a Hegelian‐inspired, Foucauldian application of how the self is defined and, more importantly, how this self‐definition is performed in accordance with social norms and values, which constitute the subject's formation, as well as its possible inclusion and exclusion within certain social contexts. Specifically, in the case of gender, Butler's work ‘moves away from settled, essentialised notions of gender and the stable subject in favour of a more fluid, complex account of identity and subjectivity’ (McQueen, 2016, p.75). We are particularly concerned with exploring the contingency and precarity of identity and, for this, Butler's notion of performativity must be underscored, as it feeds into, and helps to articulate the idea of, contingency.…”