Weighing Posthumanism: Fatness and Contested Humanity

Abstract

Our project on fatness begins by turning attention to the multiple cultural instances in which fatness has been intrinsically linked with notions such as self-neglect and poor self-management. In Foucauldian terms, we analyse the fat subject as a failed homo economicus, an individual who has failed to be an "entrepreneur of himself, being for himself his own capital, being for himself his own producer, being for himself the source of [his] earnings" (Foucault, 2008, p. 226). From this perspective, we analyse instances of collective hatred towards fat subjects as direct results of the biopolitical triplet of responsibility, rationality, and morality. Morality is our bridge into the field of posthumanism, in which, as we demonstrate, these biopolitical imperatives also apply, reinforced by the field's fascination with prosthetics and enhancement. Where, by biopolitical standards, fat subjects have failed to manage themselves, posthuman subjects find themselves guilty of not responsibly, rationally, and morally manipulating themselves to optimal productivity. Using criticism that disability studies scholars like Sarah S. Jain and Vivian Sobchack have voiced about posthumanism, we demonstrate the ways in which, within posthumanism, all subjects can be found as lacking when compared to their potential, enhanced posthuman version.

Salud, Enfermedad, Economía, Población, Territorio (Parte 2)

“…Este cambio es de gran trascendencia, porque pone en un mismo nivel a todas las "fuerzas" en la evolución tecnológica, social y política. Estas críticas a la subjetivación han influido en trabajos innovadores en geografía de la salud, lo que ha dado lugar a estudios detallados sobre el papel de los afectos, los espacios, los acontecimientos, objetos y relaciones en la experiencia vivida de la salud y la enfermedad (37). Al centrarse en los aspectos más allá de lo humanos de la vida relacional, el posthumanismo hace de la vida, la subjetividad y la identidad humanas una función entre otras de diversas fuerzas "moleculares" o "prepersonales", en lugar de su causa u origen.…”

Provocations for Critical Disability Studies

“…Posthuman critical thinkers 'are bonded by the compassionate acknowledgement of their interdependence, with multiple, human and non-human, others' (Braidotti, 2018, 342). Posthuman theories are enjoying a theoretical currency within Critical Disability Studies (Reeve 2012;Gati 2014;Runswick-Cole 2014a, 2014b;Apostolidou and Sturm 2016;Trigt, vanSchippers, and Kool 2016;Vandekinderen and Roets 2016;Winance 2016;Goodley et al 2018). We welcome these interventions not least because they offer accounts of the complex constitution of entities such as impairment that do not lapse into discursive nor biological essentialism (Billington 2017).…”