Nick Fox University of Sheffield UK Pam Alldred Brunel University UK Introduction Rationale for the paper Anthropocentrism and sexuality Antihumanism and sexuality Study of young mens sexuality ID: 215515
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Slide1
Anti-humanism, affects and the sexuality-assemblage
Nick Fox, University of Sheffield, UK Pam Alldred, Brunel University, UK Slide2
Introduction Rationale for the paper.
Anthropocentrism and sexuality.Anti-humanism and sexuality.Study of young men’s sexuality.The hetero-masculinity assemblage.Slide3
Rationale for the paper
Two theoretical moves are required to resist ‘humanist enticements’ (e.g. individualism, free will, identity) associated with sexuality. Post-structuralism has shown how sexual knowledgeabilities are culturally-specific.
Anti-humanist turn sees sexual bodies and desires as products of an impersonal and nomadic sexuality that flows between bodies, things, ideas and social formations.Slide4
AnthropocentrismGives priority to human bodies, human subjects and human experience.
Reflected in:HumanismRomanticismIndividualism
Identity politicsSlide5
Sexuality and anthropocentrism
Anthropocentric accounts :‘... classify sexual desires according to a very limited number of formulaic syntheses of genders and sexes: there is the norm (heterosexuality), then an inversion of the norm turned into an exclusive disjunction from the norm (homosexuality), then a perversion of the norm in a whole range of in-betweens (bisexuality and, to a much lesser degree, transsexuality
).’
(
Lambevski
2004: 306).Slide6
Anti-humanist approaches
Human bodies and subjects are no longer privileged as agents.Focuses instead on assemblages of bodies, things, ideas, social institutions.Elements within assemblages affect and
are affected by
each other.
These
flows of affect
produce
capacities
in bodies,
collectivities
and things.Slide7
Anti-humanism and sexuality
Sexuality is an impersonal, nomadic flow of affect within assemblages of bodies, things, ideas and social institutions and formations.This flow produces sexual (and other) capacities to desire in bodies, and hence manifestations of sexuality.Sexuality is consequently both infinitely variable and typically highly constrained (by capitalism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, genitality
,etc. ).Slide8
From ontology to methodology
Use social methods that:Explore the flows of affect in sexuality-assemblages.Identify the forces that produce conventional sexualities.Assess how to resist these forces.Slide9
The sexuality of young men
Alldred & David’s study (2007) of young people’s views of sex education and teenage pregnancy.
Focus group with eight white, working-class young men in ‘alternative education’ provision; history of multiple exclusions and tales of victimisation by teachers.
Context: English town in industrial decline; viewed as teenage pregnancy ‘hotspot’.Slide10
Data analysis methodology
Noisy and riotous engagement, with constant overlapping and interrupting.Approach the focus groups as ethnography (‘writing culture’) rather than interviews. No attempt to make claims of ‘authenticity’ or ‘identity’ by recourse to quotations from the transcript.Slide11
1. Sexuality produced relationally
Boastful heterosexualised
masculinities (initially understood as flirtation) is the product of status hierarchical affects.
This reflects location within a broader assemblage of hetero-patriarchal, economic and educational affects.
These produce both ‘manual workers’ and
a hetero-
masculinist
sexuality.Slide12
2. Sexuality as capacity
The analysis sees the hetero-masculinity of these young men not as a fixed attribute, but as fleeting opportunities that produce actions and desires in different contexts.These multiple capacities to
affect and be affected emerge from the assemblage of bodies, things and social formations.
Contrasts with
Bourdieu
‘s ‘cultural
capital‘ , in which capital is owned (or lacked) by bodies.Slide13
Sexuality as contingent and variable capacities
The physical aggression in this group is a reflection of the competitive affects within the assemblage (e.g. competition for jobs or particular girlfriends,).Capacities can variously produce hetero-sexuality; male-male aggression;
homosocial
or homosexual intimacies (and potential for other actions and desires)
.Slide14
The hetero-masculinity assemblage
boys - school exclusion - education system - alternative education – jobless men - local community norms – teenage pregnancy – benefits - mechanic’s apprenticeship – cars –driving – adult status – cigarettes – take-away food – bodily maturation – height – sexual desire – virginity –’girls’ – ‘being up-for-it’ – erections – peer discourse on heterosexSlide15
Some conclusionsSexuality is a flow of affect within an assemblage of human and non-human.
There are myriad possible sexualities.Capitalism, patriarchy, commodification and genitalism produce narrow sexualities.
There is potential to resist, and explore
nomadic sexuality.Slide16
Anti-humanism, affects and the sexuality-assemblage
Nick Fox, University of Sheffield Pam Alldred, Brunel University