In reading Butler and Athananasiou’s Dispossession: The Performative in the Political, I was captured by
their style in which they used to explain and analyze philosophical and
political issues. Though we have read collaboration pieces written by two
theorists (e.g. Lugones and Spelman’s “Have We Got a Theory for You!) Butler
and Athananasiou’s work read more like a conversation, where two colleagues
went back and forth discussing the political issues at hand. Though many times
Butler and Athananasiou were in agreement, they often questioned and challenged
each other’s language and concepts, making the reading more engaging.
While these first seven chapters discussed many of the
concepts we have discussed previously, I was very interested in their chapter “Sexual
Dispossessions.” This idea of regulatory versus constitutive means of power
when discussing sex and gender made me reflect on Catherine MacKinnon’s “Difference
and Dominance: On Sex Discrimination.” In her piece, MacKinnon argued that
measuring women in accordance with man transformed sex into a “bipolarity” rather
than a continuum, thus identifying women always as “the other” (MacKinnon). Similarly,
Athananasiou and Butler discuss the complexities that come with “biopolitics”
and sexual orientation. While Athananasiou argues that possession of a phallus
strengthens masculine-feminine binary of power, Butler takes a step further
from MacKinnon and Athananasiou’s ideas and argues that variances of sexuality
and individual choice make the normative concept of “biopolitics” now ambivalent.
Butler and Anthananasiou later enter a dialogue in which both talk about the
problems of “sexual orientation” and how it must be released from the “hegemonic
heteronormative” it cannot seem to escape.
I find your connection between Athananasiou and Butler's discussion on sexual discrimination and MacKinnon's article very topical. Both pieces use bipolarities that explain the established differences between man and woman and how they effect society's treatment of the sexes. While I definitely agree with Athananasiou and MacKinnon that it appears that by just having a different sex organ, and using it as a defining difference in anatomy and authority, men have gained an upper hand and traditionally the more powerful position in relationship to women. Your explanation of the three author's specific arguments was helpful in comparing and contrasting the merits of each's position. I like Butler's further push to examine how today gender is no longer defined by biology, and we need to create a more inclusive explanation of gender relationships. No longer is this a male/female, penis/vagina discussion of sex discrimination. While the traditional power dynamic between men and women is still relevant today, there are a lot more definitions of gender and sex to consider when looking at who is being discriminated against, and why.
ReplyDelete