Journal article
Waving not drowning – The joyous feminist possibilities of single (un)becoming women
Women's Studies International Forum, Vol.76, 102269
2019
Abstract
In this paper we promote feminist possibilities of feelingthinking (Massumi (2015)uses the term thinkingfeelingbut we prefer feelingthinking to further interrupt the normative brainbody hierarchal construction) beyond theheteronormative assumptions of coupledom. We thrive by living feminist lives asindependentfemalesirrespectiveofpartnerstatus,weare'unbecomingwomen'. Notbelongingto a partner [usually assumed as man], brings us aswomen, into conflict with the regulatory tensions that re-inscribe both a compulsory and anormativeconceptionof hetero/coupledom where females are always accountable to and for their men-folk. We recount our ownpersonal stories that illustrate the joyful productive possibilitiesthatonlybecome availableto us as unowned andunownable women- as unbecoming women. Our narratives draw attention to social mechanisms of misogyny(Manne, 2018) that seek to regulate us/women towards relational conformity within coupledom. We suggestcoupledom derived from this normative conception is a mechanism of misogyny because it polices and enforcesaffective power relations which diminish possibilities of flourishing female lives, within and exterior to affec-tionate attachments. In utilising personal narratives, we creatively traverse the binaries of compulsory and re-strictive coupledom, to articulate the joyful queer ("Broadly speaking, queer describes those gestures or ana-lytical models which dramatise incoherencies in the allegedly stable relations between chromosomal sex, genderand sexual desire" (Jagose, 1996, 3)) possibilities of positive difference as agentic bodies who happen to befemale. Our togetherness, through recalling and sharing narratives beyond dominant reductive conceptions ofcoupledom becomes central to our feminist killjoy toolkit (Ahmed, 2017) for living a joyful feminist life.
Details
- Title
- Waving not drowning – The joyous feminist possibilities of single (un)becoming women
- Authors
- Melissa Joy Wolfe (Author) - Monash UniversityGenine Hook (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Social Sciences
- Publication details
- Women's Studies International Forum, Vol.76, 102269; 6
- Publisher
- Pergamon
- Date published
- 2019
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.wsif.2019.102269
- ISSN
- 0277-5395
- Organisation Unit
- School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99451241402621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Women's Studies