What else can a sexy body do Nick

What (else) can a sexy body do? Nick Fox Professor of Sociology University of Sheffield

To understand sexualisation, let us see how it works, what can it do ?

Introduction • A Deleuzian approach to sexuality • What is an assemblage? • Desire • Ecology of sexuality- assemblages Body assemblage

A Deleuzian Perspective • Different ontology: connectivities and networks rather than bodies. • Positive desire. • Territorialisation. • What else can a body do?

Life is lived through assemblages

Image: ‘The bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even’. Marcel Duchamp , 1923. Assemblages • Assemblages are ‘a kind of chaotic network of habitual and non-habitual connections, always in flux, always reassembling in different ways’ (Potts 2004: 19). • Desiring-machines

Assemblages of Relations • Physical (e. g. hormones, medicines). • Psychological (e. g. Oedipal, fetishes). • Social-cultural (e. g. institutions, imagery, norms and values). • Philosophical and abstract (e. g. chastity, religion, sexual liberation). • (Experiential/individual)

Examples of Assemblages mouth – hunger - milk – nipple – mother patient – disease – doctor – biomedicine – health technology sex organ – hormones – other body

Desire • Deleuze and Guattari criticise traditional ideas of desire as a lack. • Positive desire: the creative, experimenting, driven body. • Capitalism exploits the gap between desire and lack.

Territorialisation • Assemblages territorialise the Bw. O. • It can be de-territorialised by novel relations. • It can be re-territorialised. • It can achieve a line of flight from a territory.

What can a body do? • Assemblages of relations create the conditions of possibility for desire. • The number and intensity of a body’s relations shape what it can do. • This question provides a methodology. Mark Rothko at work

An Ecology of Assemblage • Assemblages bring together entities that are organic and non-organic; material and abstract , technological and natural. • The unit of analysis should be the ecology of relations, not individuals or bodies. • Explore the connectivities within this ecology of assemblage.

The Rabbit Assemblage

Rabbit-Assemblage • Don’t think of an entity called ‘rabbit’ , but of an ecology of rabbit-ing. food – field – rabbit – other rabbits – warren - predators – my roses – angry human – shotgun • I am part of the rabbit-assemblage and it is part of the Fox-assemblage.

‘ ‘Once the machines are assembled, they have an identity and a life of their own’ (Ballantyne 2007: 23)

Sexuality as assemblage • The sexuality-assemblage comprises disparate relations. • It shapes what the sexy body can do. • It shapes our desire.

Exploring Sexuality • ‘Given a certain effect, what machine [assemblage] is capable of producing it? ’ • ‘And given a certain machine, what can it be used for? ’ (Deleuze and Guattari 1984: 3)

What can a sexy body do? • Be aroused • Get sexual pleasure/orgasm • Get sexual partners • Fall in love • Be unfaithful • Etc. etc. Waterhouse: Hylas and the Nymphs 1896

Sexuality-assemblages A pubescent assemblage : hormones – sex organs - imagery (e. g. kiss) – role models – sexual others + ? ? ? An adolescent assemblage: hormones – sex organs - sexual imagery – ideal types (Jlo, Pitt) – partial objects (e. g. breasts, pecs, ass) - sexual others– peer group – romance – isolation - ? ? ?

Sexuality assemblages A generalised assemblage: hormones – sex organs - (sexual) past history – sexual imagery/marketing/porn – partial objects - fetishes (e. g. clothing) sexual others – romance – love – marriage - ? ? ?

Sexualisation • In any era, the sexuality-assemblage incorporates social, economic, ideological and political relations (e. g. capitalism, patriarchy, sexism). • Sexualisation is a narrowing of sexuality, within a body – commodity assemblage.

Sex as commodity • Capitalism exploits the gap between desire and lack (Deleuze and Guattari 1984). • While there is scarcity, there is this gap. • The sexuality-assemblage is drawn into a larger economic machine (assemblage) that turns bodies into commodities and desire into money.

Territorialising sexuality The commodified sexual body is territorialised: - Youthfulness - Looks and beauty - Body shape - Sexual behaviour and responses - Types of sexual activity and fantasies.

The Viagra assemblage ‘My best friend at the office introduced me to Viagra a week after he saw my attitude change at the office due to my noticeable depression. Thanks to Viagra, I felt I am gaining my manhood again, but now lazy of doing sex without the blue pill. I am now becoming a big fan of Viagra, and afraid of having sex without Viagra’ (George).

The Viagra assemblage sex – bedroom –penis – male sexuality – Viagra – identity - consumerism – sex partner - internet - pharmaceutical industry – profit – capitalism (Fox and Ward 2008) This may be very constraining and not welcomed by partners (Potts et al 2003).

The Viagra-assemblage • Links the private world of the sexual conduct to the interests of global capitalism. • Contributes to sexual and health identities. • Shapes the experience and expectations of sexuality.

Too much sex. . . or not enough? • Commodification narrows the expression of sexuality. • Desire is territorialised within a fantasyassemblage. • The positive desire of the body engages with the materiality of bodies and sexuality.

Some conclusions • Sexuality is an assemblage that shapes how the body’s desire is directed • Look at the ecology of the network. • Assemblages link flesh to the economic and political forces of global capitalism. • De-territorialise a myriad of individual possible sexualities.

In the Fox-assemblage • Deleuze and Guattari • Ansell Pearson • Latour • Buchanan • De Landa • Potts

What (else) can a sexy body do? Nick Fox Professor of Sociology University of Sheffield