Die Spur der Lüste. Sexualität, Geschlecht und Macht
(Geschlecht und Gesellschaft Band 10)
Opladen: Leske + Budrich 1998
219 pp., DM 39,-; ISBN 3-8100-1903-8
The traces of lust. Sexuality, gender, and power
Ott brings together major lines of argumentation on sexuality and power. She first reads them - including accompanying discourses - as analyses of the present societal organization of sexuality - as texts (by Kate Millet, Sulamith Firestone, Adrienne Rich, Gayle Rubin and Judith Butler) reporting on modern conditions and forms of power (according to Foucault). These texts show, according to Ott, the complex condition of sexuality characterized by conflict and "disparate temporal belonging". In a second move Ott deals with the theoretical contexts of the analyzed texts, especially theories on power and the subject. This shows: 1) the difficulty of understanding - and relating to each other - processes of the constitution of "sexuized" subjectivity as opposed to processes of sexualization leading to subjectivity; 2) the approaches show two different power concepts: one focusing on subjugation, the other focusing on "productive effects" (of power) - the disadvantages are: the former idealizes those suppressed, the latter tends to ignore violence and coercion; 3) the texts show different "power lines", marking points of which are: heterosexism and androcentrism. As a present result, several sexualities and sexes are observed to be existing in a heterogeneous power network.
Keywords: sexual identity, power and sexuality, feminism, heterosexuality, androcentrism, Foucault, M., subject and sexuality
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