Bodies and Pleasures

By Ladelle McWhorter, Federico Erebia, Keah Brown

Sexual identities are dangerous, Michel Foucault tells us. Categories of desire harden into stereotypes by which the forces of normalization hold us and judge us. In Bodies and Pleasures, Ladelle McWhorter reads Foucault from an original and personal angle, motivated by the differences this experience has made in her life. At the same time, her analysis advances discussion of key issues in Foucault scholarship: the genealogical critique, the status of the subject and humanism, essentialism versus social construction, and the relationships between identity, community, and political action. Weaving her own experience of coming to grips with her lesbian sexual identity into her readings of Foucault's most recent writings on sexuality and power, McWhorter argues compellingly that Foucault's texts should be read less for the arguments they advance and more for their transformative effect. By exploring bodies and pleasures--gardening, line dancing, or doing philosophy, for example--McWhorter shows that it isn't necessary to conform with socially recognized sexual identities. Bodies and Pleasures takes the reader beyond unexplored norms and imposed identities as it points the way toward a personal politics, ethics, and style that challenges our sexual selves.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253213258
• ISBN13: 9780253213259
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 9.5"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Excellent Feminist Theory text

McWhorter's book was a terrific success in a 300-level philosophy/women's studies class on Feminist Theory. The combination of autobiography and defense of Foucault is tremendously moving and intellectually gripping. McWhorter forced me to reconsider all of my objections to post-modernism. And just when you start to feel bogged down in the theory, you suddenly encounter a memorable character like McWhorter's second cousin Rory. McWhorter is a great story teller. This book has my highest recommendation.

a smart and autobiographical interpretation of foucault

mcwhorter tackles important and complicated issues--sexuality, political activism--from a personal and practical point of view. while a background knowledge of foucault would be helpful, one does not have to be a philosophy scholar to feel the force of mcwhorter's argument. she mixes close textual analysis with very comonsensical, accessible examples. prepare to be convinced of the political power to be found in line dancing and backyard gardening!