WS 334 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Paraphilia, Parasitic Twin, Stonewall Riots
19 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Foucault"s idea is that there is nothing private about sexuality at all because it"s been so discursively produced. Foucault used this example to show readers how governmentality comes in to manage/administer sexuality. Interviewers would go and talk to inverts and write about the colour of the furniture, the room"s cleanliness, etc. Thus the invert is produced as a species. We still think of gay men as being stylish and clean. The idea is that the expert talks to the homosexual and takes down what he does. According to shildrick, nonnormative bodies are more vulnerable to this because they are more vulnerable to begin with. Her argument is that identity politics is extremely limited because in order to participate, you need to step into the system, into an identity that has been created for you. The risk of identity politics is the cost of normalization. Governmentality doesn"t absorb your difference; it allows you to have certain rights on their own terms.
