The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog
Concluding “Gender Trouble” (1990), with just Mark, Wes, and Seth going carefully through pt I, sec v: “Identity, Set, and the Metaphysics of Substance,” and pt III, sec iv: “Subversive Bodily Acts: Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions.”
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End song: “I’m a Boy” by Lys Guillorn as interviewed for Nakedly Examined Music #44.
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More Gender Trouble (1990) with Jennifer Hansen. We get into the metaphysics of substance (is gender an attribute that a person has, or is there a better way to describe the situation?), performatives, Beauvoir vs. Irigaray on femininity, and the available mechanisms for changing gender norms.
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On Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). Is gender socially constructed, and if so, how?
Butler describes gender not as an essential quality of a person, but as “performed,” as habits of acting in certain ways in accordance with customs. Her idea of social construction is so totalizing that even biological sex itself is constructed. With guest Jennifer Hansen.
End song: “I’m a Boy” by Lys Guillorn as interviewed for Nakedly Examined Music #44.
On Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). Is gender socially constructed, and if so, how?
Butler describes gender not as an essential quality of a person, but as “performed,” as habits of acting in certain ways in accordance with customs. Her idea of social construction is so totalizing that even biological sex itself is constructed. With guest Jennifer Hansen.
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Concluding Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): “The Woman in Love” and “Myths” with guest Jennifer Hansen.
We continue on the ailments of women under patriarchy as well as the existential problems that we’re all subject to. Are we doomed to isolation, or does existentialism allow for intimacy? Is marriage in “bad faith”? We also talk narcissism, abjection, and the film Marriage Story.
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End song: “Easier than Leaving” by Michaela Anne, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #114.
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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): “The Woman in Love” and “Myths” with guest Jennifer Hansen. What is love under patriarchy? We all want to achieve solidity in another’s eyes, but the Othered woman wants to live through the man, and the man sees the woman as his rejected corporeal character. Party time!
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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): “The Woman in Love” and “Myths” with guest Jennifer Hansen. We explore the maladies of love, try to figure how B’s picture relates to modern romance and what her positive prescription for good love is, and use the recent film A Marriage Story as a case study.
End song: “Easier than Leaving” by Michaela Anne, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #114.
Continuing Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) with guest Jennifer Hansen.
How does one become a Subject and how do women traditionally get shut out of this process? We get into Vol. 2, “Lived Experience” where Beauvoir details how this drama unfolds in various stages of life. Also, religion, logic, the relation of biology to situation, and more. How do we modernize Beauvoir’s critique given the evolution in women’s positions since the book was written?
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End song: “Wrong Side of Gone” by Beth Kille as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #13.
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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): the intro, conclusion, “Woman’s Situation and Character” and parts of “Lived Experience,” with guest Jennifer Hansen.
According to Beauvoir, Woman is historically conceived of by society (and herself) as “Other,” as not a Subject who creates and makes decisions. Her life is predetermined, revolving around marriage and child-bearing, and is so deformed by this situation.
Continue with part 2 or get the unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): the intro, conclusion, “Woman’s Situation and Character” and parts of “Lived Experience,” with guest Jennifer Hansen.
According to Beauvoir, Woman is historically conceived of by society (and herself) as “Other,” as not a Subject who creates and makes decisions. Her life is predetermined, revolving around marriage and child-bearing, and is so deformed by this situation.
End song: “Wrong Side of Gone” by Beth Kille as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #13.
Continuing on Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, ch. 1 and 2. We try to get clearer on Kristeva’s talk of “object,” the relationship between language and abjection, how Kristeva is advancing on Freud, how to be a mom that allows a kid to separate in a healthy way, and how abjection plays into religion and writing.
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End song: “Eyes of Fire” by Jill Freeman, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #28.
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On Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980), ch. 1 and 2.
Kristeva writes about “abjection,” where we violently reject things like corpses, bodily wastes and other fluids, and the Lovecraftian unnameable that lurks at the edge of our awareness. Her book is also all about the self, suggesting modifications to Freud’s Oedipal complex and Lacan’s mirror-stage story. With guest Kelley Citrin.
Continue on part 2, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition, as well as Mark’s Close Reading, which we’ve made available to Patreon supporters at the $1 level. Please support PEL!
On Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980), ch. 1 and 2.
What is horror? Kristeva’s book is about a process she calls “abjection,” where we violently reject things like corpses, bodily wastes and other fluids, and the Lovecraftian unnameable that lurks at the edge of our awareness.
The book is also all about the self, suggesting modifications to Freud’s Oedipal complex and Lacan’s mirror-stage story. With guest Kelley Citrin.
End song: “Eyes of Fire” by Jill Freeman, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #28.
Watch out for Mark’s Close Reading/follow-up on this text, coming soon!
Concluding our discussion of Aristophanes’s play with Lucy Lawless and Emily Perkins. We focus on trying to connect its lessons to the here and now: Is Lysistrata’s victory properly described as the ascension of some kind of “feminine spirit” over warlike values, and how does that actually relate to women’s struggles now to attain positions of power?
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We are rejoined by actresses Lucy Lawless and Emily Perkins to discuss Aristophanes’s bawdy play. Listen to us perform it first.
Supplementary readings included Jeffery Henderson’s introduction to his 1988 translation of the play; “Sexual Humor and Harmony in Lysistrata” by Jay M. Semel (1981); and “The ‘Female Intruder’ Reconsidered: Women in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Ecclesiazusae” by Helene P. Foley (1982).
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We are rejoined by actresses Lucy Lawless and Emily Perkins to discuss Aristophanes’s bawdy play. Listen to us perform it first.
Supplementary readings included Jeffery Henderson’s introduction to his 1988 translation of the play; “Sexual Humor and Harmony in Lysistrata” by Jay M. Semel (1981); and “The ‘Female Intruder’ Reconsidered: Women in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Ecclesiazusae” by Helene P. Foley (1982).
End song: “Women of Industry (ABWA Charm)” by Jill Sobule, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #18.
Almost fifty years ago there was an influential woman who called pregnancy “barbaric,” described childhood as “hell,” and said giving birth was “like shitting a pumpkin.” Shulamith Firestone was a radical activist and remarkably prescient thinker who helped define feminism as we know it. Yet today she remains largely—and unfairly—unknown.
What’s the connection between existentialism and feminism in Simone de Beauvoir’s work?
On Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981) and Black Looks: Race and Representation (1992, Intro, Ch. 3, 11).
How do these pernicious forces interact? hooks describes black women as having been excluded from both mainstream historical feminism (led by white women) and black civil rights struggles (permeated with patriarchy), and this “silencing” creates challenges for self-actualization and social justice. The solution: media critique of stereotyped images and personally connecting to a historical narrative of liberation. With guest Myisha Cherry, host of the UnMute Podcast.
End song: “Stories” by Mark Lint and Steve Petrinko (2011).
On Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981) and Black Looks: Race and Representation (1992, Intro, Ch. 3, 11).
How do these pernicious forces interact? hooks describes black women as having been excluded from both mainstream historical feminism (led by white women) and black civil rights struggles (permeated with patriarchy), and this “silencing” creates challenges for self-actualization and social justice. The solution: media critique of stereotyped images and personally connecting to a historical narrative of liberation. With guest Myisha Cherry, host of the UnMute Podcast.
End song: “Stories” by Mark Lint and Steve Petrinko (2011).
