Post-identity politics and the social weightlessness of radical gender theory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4480795 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paddy Mcqueen (0000-0001-9696-8654, University College Dublin, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 134 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 73-88 |
| Publication date | 2016-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Thesis Eleven (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0725-5136 • E-ISSN: 1461-7455 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0725513616646024 |
| OpenAlex | W2428715489 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 27 |
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
Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Epistemology · Identity (music · Political science · Political subjectivity · Politics · Social group · Social identity theory · Social science · Sociology · Subject (documents · Subjectivity · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Invisible Lives
Hegel's Phenomenology
Feminism and the Abyss of Freedom
The Ethics of Identity
The Politics of Recognition
The Subject and Power
Judith Butler and Political Theory
Nomadic subjects
Giving an Account of Oneself
Undoing Gender
Hegel's Practical Philosophy
Giving an Account of Oneself
Home and away
Honneth, Butler and the Ambivalent Effects of Recognition
Sex Change, Social Change
Sources of the self
Metamorphoses
Bodies that matter
Integrity and Disrespect
Feminism and Post‐Identity Politics
Time Travels
Bodies That Matter
Must Identity Movements Self-Destruct? A Queer Dilemma
The Psychic Life of Power
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Highly cited | No |