Deleuze and feminism: debates on becoming-woman
- Marcelo Sebastián Antonelli Marangi
Abstract
This article investigates the concept of becoming-woman and some of the debates it has provoked in the reception of Deleuze within the field of feminist and gender studies. Interpretations have been predominantly negative based on criticisms of various kinds: the meaning of the concept is unclear and undefined; it lacks political efficacy due to its disconnection with the concrete struggles of actually existing women; it conceals masculine and ethnocentric, androgynous or even patriarchal positions; it leads to a post-feminist horizon that dissolves women's identity and invisibilises their claims for recognition; it ignores the epistemological and political importance of sexual difference. The hypothesis proposed in this paper is that these criticisms can be discussed with arguments grounded in a rigorous re-reading of this concept in Deleuzian work, that recovers key distinctions (the molar and the molecular, the majority and the minority) and analyses the schizoanalytic perspectives that underpin his rejection of sexual difference and his critical view on some feminist struggles. This paper further explores where Deleuze can be positioned in the debate between dimorphism theorists and gender partisans and suggests the possibility of inscribing him in a post genderist orientation.
Keywords
gender, women, subject, sexuality, difference
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