Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jan 2023

Desiring Bodies: Sexology andThe Hite Reportafter New Materialism

Jean Bessette Schlumberger (Ireland)

Abstract

Desire confounds rhetoricians and sexologists alike. In this essay, I draw on Karen Barad’s agential realism to theorize sexual desire as a “phenomenon”: a dynamic entanglement within and between bodies, including physiological processes, stimuli, awareness, and the instruments deployed to measure it. These relational elements intra-act in the context of enduring social forces that shape our experiences. Juxtaposing contemporary clinical research and an influential sexual survey, The Hite Report, as “agential cuts,” I examine how the phenomenon of desire is complexly rhetorical, as the elements comprising desire collaborate to mobilize and inhibit behavior but may also be subject to gendered intervention and constraint.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2023-01-01
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2022.2078866
CompPile
Open Access
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