The Sexual Politics of the Anthropocene: Zoe Equalitarianism and the Reformulation of Feminism

Myungho Lee

doi:10.21049/ccs.2021.62..29

This essay starts by addressing the need for a theoretical transition of feminism based on social constructionism. Judith Butler’s Foucaudian discursive constructionism discloses the dangers of evaporating nature, material, and body into discourse by deconstructing the sex/gender distinction, and repositioning sex as the effects of gender. In order to correct this problem, I argue, we need to propose a new theoretical paradigm called, “material turn,” in which discourse and material are not opposed, and the agency and activity of material are acknowledged without sacrificing the insights of discursive constructionism. This paper finds the existence of this possibility in Luce Irigaray’s conception of sexual difference, and Elizabeth Grosz’s innovative combination of Irigaray’s theory with Charles Darwin’s conception of sexual selection. These two arguments can serve as powerful theoretical supports for the transition to a posthuman feminism that goes beyond humanism tied to social constructionism. In the so-called Anthropocene era, where the human is seen to be the cause of the extinction of all lives on the Earth, feminism needs to reformulate itself in order to contribute to the survival and sustainability of the Earth through the establishment of equal relationships among all life species as well as within human groups.

Citation status

KCI Citation Counts (1)
열림/닫힘 버튼
REFERENCES (17)
열림/닫힘 버튼
* 2021년 이후 발행 논문의 참고문헌은 현재 구축 중입니다.

[book] 이명호 / 2014 / 누가 안티고네를 두려워하는가: 성차의 문화정치 / 문학동네

[book] 슬라보예 지젝 / 2020 / 팬데믹 패닉: 코로나 19는 세계를 어떻게 뒤흔들 었는가 / 북하우스

[book] Alaimo, Stacy / 2008 / Material Feminisms / Indiana UP

[journal] Barad, Karen / 1996 / Getting Real: Technoscientific Practices and the Materialization of Reality / differences 10(2)

[book] Braidotti, Rosi / 2017 / Anthropocene Feminism / University of Minnesota P

[book] Butler, Judith / 1990 / Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity / Routledge

[book] Butler, Judith / 1993 / Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex” / Routledge

[book] Grosz, Elizabeth / 2011 / Becoming Undone: Darwinian Reflections on Life, Politics, and Art / Duke UP

[journal] Grosz, Elizabeth / 2012 / The Nature of Sexual Difference: Irigaray and Darwin / Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities 17(2)

[book] Haraway, Donna J / 2008 / Material Feminisms / Indiana UP

[book] Huffer, Lynn / 2017 / Feminist Philosophy, Anthropocen Feminism / Univerity of Minnesota Press

[book] Irigaray, Luce / 1994 / Thinking the Difference: For a Peaceful Revolution / Routledge

[book] Irigaray, Luce / 1993 / I Love to You: Sketch of a Possible Felicity in History / Routledge

[book] Irigaray, Luce / 2008 / Conversations / Continnum

[journal] Latour, Bruno / 2004 / Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam? From Matters of Facts to Matters of Concern / Critical Inquiry 30(2)

[journal] Stone, Alice / 2015 / Irigaray’s Ecological Phenomenology: Towards an Elemental Materialism / The Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 40(2)

[book] Wilson, Elizabeth A / 1998 / Neural Geographies: Feminism and the Microstructures of Cognition / Routledge

이 논문은 한국연구재단의 지원을 받아 작성되었습니다.

KJC Korea
Journal Central

Statistics

Tools

Sharing

Issue List

Citation status