The Art of not Being Categorized Quite So (Much)

Abstract

In France the movement against Marriage for All has accused the so-called ‘theory of gender’ of being an unscientific ideology. This paper addresses three implicit premises of this polemic: 1. The opposition of science and politics is a misreading of Weber: the social sciences cannot be ‘neutralized’; they must be considered as ‘situated knowledge’ (Haraway, Harding). 2. The epistemological question (from Durkheim to Bourdieu): The categories that organize knowledge are based on a social process of categorization – both with respect to sexuality (Kinsey) and sex (Fausto-Sterling). 3. Sex is socially constructed: This is not about identifying a ‘true sex’ (Foucault), but about representation, which is always conventional. We inevitably categorize; critique, however, is the art of not being so categorized (Foucault): neither so much nor quite so.