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Bodies and Pleasures: Foucault and the Politics of Sexual Normalization
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 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.
288 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1999
About the author
Ladelle McWhorter
10 books2 followersLadelle McWhorter is the James Thomas Professor of Philosophy and Professor of the Women's, Gender, and Sexualities Studies Program at the University of Richmond. She is author of Bodies and Pleasures: Foucault and the Politics of Sexual Normalization (IUP, 1999).
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 12, 2017
The best interpretation of Michel Foucault's work on sexuality as power I have read so far.
August 15, 2024
I had to wait for almost a month to receive this book from a small mid-Western American bookstore by mail, and it did not disappoint me to say the least. A lovely case of auto theory from the 1990s - auto theory being a genre where it is explored how philosophical and/or critical theory has altered the lived experience of the author. In this case is it about how Foucault's understanding of sexuality, bodies and pleasures have helped Ladelle embrace her 'identity' - Foucault being very critical of the value of sexual identity and identity politics - as a queer/lesbian woman. She alternates between Foucauldian concepts and her experiences of struggling with her queer identity, living in fear of being 'outed' and losing her job, being diagnosed by psychologists during her childhood until the moment where she was able to live more comfortably in relation to her sexuality (without resorting to fixated sexual orientations), to experience more pleasure in her body and the communities around her and lastly, to find the strength to partake in explicit political action regardless of the devastating consequences it could have to her life.
She starts by discussing why Foucault criticises discourses such as sexological research from the 1880s onwards, psychoanalysis and psychiatry as causes of the belief that sex holds the 'truth' of one's being and what one 'really' is. Turning sex into an epistemic object allowed to forms of power and control over what constitutes normal and deviant sexualities, and how deviant sexualities can effectively be fixed by psychologists or medication. In the words of Foucault:
"The notion of 'sex' made it possible to group together, in an artificial unity, anatomical elements, biological functions, conducts, sensations, and pleasures, and it enabled one to make use of this fictitious unity as a causal principle, an omnipresent meaning, a secret to be discovered everywhere: sex was thus able to function as a unique signifier and a universal signified" (Foucault, History of Sexuality 1, 154-155).
What I personally enjoyed the most were her descriptions on how Foucault advocates for moving beyond body-mind dualism, why philosophers have been more interested in pain than in pleasure (because pain has been an instrument of discipline and power much more than pleasure has been), why reclaiming pleasure from 'sex-desire' - an attempted attack to psychoanalysis - is so important, why Foucault believed that S/M sex, drugs and philosophical writing can be ethical practices of self-cultivation, why and how Ladelle finds her self-cultivation in gardening and line-dancing, why Foucault believed philosophy was a practice of seeing one's life as an artwork or style that needs to be cultivated in terms of askeses (disciplined pleasures) and why askeses lead to self-transformative and freeing experiences which in turn lead to change in power regimes. According to Foucault, we nowadays tend to see this as a individualistic and selfish view of ethics - because ethics must initially have to do with how to relate to others and the world - yet Foucault argues that the Greeks saw nothing selfish about cultivating one's askeses: it was part of what any respectable citizen would do and it what functions as a basis for solid political, communal and relational actions. It is through cultivating askeses first that we can potentially counter regimes of power and (sexual) normalisation.
As Ladelle describes it: "this kind of ethics - practices of reflexive, artistic self-transformation - Foucault often refers to as "caring for the self." Care here is understood as cultivation or development of potential, capacities, talents and strengths. [...] There is no predetermined shape that maturity must take: there is no telos. Caring for yourself is artistic work: it is self-stylisation that is an affirmation of becoming other than what we are" (p. 195).
My main point of criticism - and why I did not give the book five stars - is in terms of writing style: the author sometimes gets lost into elaborate descriptions of local details that could not always hold my attention. At other times she writes a bit too repetitively which also made me struggle more with keeping my attention to the text. Overall a wonderful book if you want to be introduced to Foucault's views on sexuality, ethics, philosophy and politics and want to read see how a philosophers' view is able to fundamentally impact one's self-understanding and lived experience.
She starts by discussing why Foucault criticises discourses such as sexological research from the 1880s onwards, psychoanalysis and psychiatry as causes of the belief that sex holds the 'truth' of one's being and what one 'really' is. Turning sex into an epistemic object allowed to forms of power and control over what constitutes normal and deviant sexualities, and how deviant sexualities can effectively be fixed by psychologists or medication. In the words of Foucault:
"The notion of 'sex' made it possible to group together, in an artificial unity, anatomical elements, biological functions, conducts, sensations, and pleasures, and it enabled one to make use of this fictitious unity as a causal principle, an omnipresent meaning, a secret to be discovered everywhere: sex was thus able to function as a unique signifier and a universal signified" (Foucault, History of Sexuality 1, 154-155).
What I personally enjoyed the most were her descriptions on how Foucault advocates for moving beyond body-mind dualism, why philosophers have been more interested in pain than in pleasure (because pain has been an instrument of discipline and power much more than pleasure has been), why reclaiming pleasure from 'sex-desire' - an attempted attack to psychoanalysis - is so important, why Foucault believed that S/M sex, drugs and philosophical writing can be ethical practices of self-cultivation, why and how Ladelle finds her self-cultivation in gardening and line-dancing, why Foucault believed philosophy was a practice of seeing one's life as an artwork or style that needs to be cultivated in terms of askeses (disciplined pleasures) and why askeses lead to self-transformative and freeing experiences which in turn lead to change in power regimes. According to Foucault, we nowadays tend to see this as a individualistic and selfish view of ethics - because ethics must initially have to do with how to relate to others and the world - yet Foucault argues that the Greeks saw nothing selfish about cultivating one's askeses: it was part of what any respectable citizen would do and it what functions as a basis for solid political, communal and relational actions. It is through cultivating askeses first that we can potentially counter regimes of power and (sexual) normalisation.
As Ladelle describes it: "this kind of ethics - practices of reflexive, artistic self-transformation - Foucault often refers to as "caring for the self." Care here is understood as cultivation or development of potential, capacities, talents and strengths. [...] There is no predetermined shape that maturity must take: there is no telos. Caring for yourself is artistic work: it is self-stylisation that is an affirmation of becoming other than what we are" (p. 195).
My main point of criticism - and why I did not give the book five stars - is in terms of writing style: the author sometimes gets lost into elaborate descriptions of local details that could not always hold my attention. At other times she writes a bit too repetitively which also made me struggle more with keeping my attention to the text. Overall a wonderful book if you want to be introduced to Foucault's views on sexuality, ethics, philosophy and politics and want to read see how a philosophers' view is able to fundamentally impact one's self-understanding and lived experience.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 27, 2025
This book riffs on Foucault’s line, “We must try to think sexuality in terms of bodies and pleasures, not in terms of sex and desire.” McWhorter argues that desire doesn’t have to define us, that there’s no “true self” to excavate, and that ethical, everyday pleasure can be part of living a freer, more artful life. She pushes back on identity politics, noting how easily identity gets policed once it’s named.
I liked these ideas and found parts energizing, but I was craving more direct arguments and less circling. It felt like it kept setting the stage without fully stepping onto it. Still, it made me think about how pleasure could be a site of practice, not confession. Worth reading if you’re interested in Foucault, sexuality, or queer theory.
I liked these ideas and found parts energizing, but I was craving more direct arguments and less circling. It felt like it kept setting the stage without fully stepping onto it. Still, it made me think about how pleasure could be a site of practice, not confession. Worth reading if you’re interested in Foucault, sexuality, or queer theory.
November 28, 2015
Read for the Popsugar Reading Challenge - a book that takes place in your hometown
Re-read! A strange choice for this category, maybe, but the author is actually from my hometown and frequently discusses her experiences there, so it's actually a perfect match. Nearly five years after first reading it, my original review still holds: I cannot say enough how much I loved this book. Clear, thoughtful, engaging, and well-written, this books is so fantastic that I've given it to people with no interest in theory and they've loved it.
Re-read! A strange choice for this category, maybe, but the author is actually from my hometown and frequently discusses her experiences there, so it's actually a perfect match. Nearly five years after first reading it, my original review still holds: I cannot say enough how much I loved this book. Clear, thoughtful, engaging, and well-written, this books is so fantastic that I've given it to people with no interest in theory and they've loved it.
February 27, 2011
A wholly-accessible accounting of Foucault's major theories through the lens of memoir--the advantage for the reader is that the theorist/memoirist in question, Ladelle McWhorter, has a funny, easy-going, earnest manner that makes her presentation of Foucault through memory and anecdote a deep pleasure.
May 25, 2012
Great read, does a wonderful job making Foucault's ideas in The History of Sexuality: Vol 1 both accessible and relevant with some funny passages throughout. Recommended to anyone that wants to get into Foucault.
June 13, 2009
An extremely interesting analysis of what Foucault meant at the end of History of Sexuality Vol. 1 of "bodies and pleasures" and the normalization of sex and sexuality.
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November 13, 2011Reviewed here.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews