The libidinal law: sexuality and desire in U.S. legal embodiment

IF 0.7 Q3 SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY Subjectivity Pub Date : 2024-07-29 DOI:10.1057/s41286-024-00188-9

Riley Clare Valentine, Zane McNeill

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Abstract

Politics is frequently understood through the body. However, liberal political theory and, therefore, American law focus upon a question of rights, rather than of needs. Due to this, liberal political theory occludes vulnerability and the facticity of bodies from political thought. Embodiment, a given but also an uncomfortable facet of life, pushes us to consider how political and legal decisions impact people’s lives. It necessitates that political and legal decisions are made by considering the ways in which they can and will effect all people, not just the independent, autonomous, and rational actor. This legal embodiment theory allows us to make visible the ways in which marginalized people’s bodies frequently are the site of specific restrictions. The paper begins with a discussion of embodiment and care ethics. It then progresses to gender-affirming healthcare and abortion and how embodiment arises in those legal discourses. Then, it moves to a discussion of queer sexuality in education, engaging with ideas of disgust. Finally, it broaches the question of the State’s role when it comes to legal embodiment. If we consider embodiment through a lens of a shared good, then legal embodiment ought to prioritize decisions which will promote caring relationships between the individual’s body and the State.

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性欲法：美国法律体现中的性与欲望

人们经常通过身体来理解政治。然而，自由主义政治理论以及美国法律关注的是权利问题，而不是需求问题。因此，自由主义政治理论将身体的脆弱性和事实性排除在政治思想之外。身体是生活中一个既定但又令人不安的方面，它促使我们思考政治和法律决策如何影响人们的生活。它要求我们在做出政治和法律决定时，必须考虑到这些决定会以何种方式影响到所有人，而不仅仅是独立、自主和理性的行为者。这种法律体现理论使我们能够看到边缘化人群的身体如何经常成为特定限制的场所。本文首先讨论了体现和护理伦理。然后，论文讨论了性别确认医疗保健和堕胎问题，以及体现如何在这些法律论述中出现。接着，论文讨论了教育中的同性恋性行为，并涉及了厌恶的观点。最后，文章探讨了国家在法律体现方面的作用问题。如果我们从共同利益的角度来考虑体现，那么法律体现就应该优先考虑能够促进个人身体与国家之间关爱关系的决定。

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来源期刊

Subjectivity SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY-

CiteScore

1.00

自引率

20.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Subjectivity is an international, transdisciplinary journal examining the social, cultural, historical and material processes, dynamics and structures of human experience. As topic, problem and resource, notions of subjectivity are relevant to many disciplines, including cultural studies, sociology, social theory, geography, anthropology and psychology. The journal brings together scholars from across the social sciences and the humanities, publishing high-quality theoretical and empirical papers that address the processes by which subjectivities are produced, explore subjectivity as a locus of social change, and examine how emerging subjectivities remake our social worlds.

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