You seem be referring to Butler's and Sedgwick's references to Foucault's prioritization of "Pleasure" over "Sexuality". There is a lot written by Foucault on that particular topic, including interviews, but a good start is in the last few pages of History fo Sexuality I (I think page 206 or 208 or something like that in the French Gallimard edition).
Anyway, in English, a good start for you would be to read (at least) the Appendix of The emergence of sexuality : historical epistemology and the formation of concepts by Davidson, Arnold I. (Harvard U Press, 2000 or 2001?)
Fouad Kalouche
> From: princeptiffany@xxxxxxxxxx
> To: foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 23:00:31 +0100
> Subject: Re: [Foucault-L] PRECISION Need reference: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
>
>
> To
> Nathaniel: I don't get what's wrong with your 3 propositions. I would even say
> I agree with all of them, I find these "categorizations" even more
> "natural" (meaning: intuitive) than the homo/hetero one. But maybe
> I'm too queer? Haha.
>
>
> To Ryan,
> and everyone interested: I'm pretty sure the meaning of Sedgwick's
> pseudo-statement is not that people are closer through
> the sexual acts they perform, but that they sometimes can feel
> closer through the practices they have in common, or that we can also
> categorize them along these axes (I'm thinking here of Sedgwick rhetorical
> exercise in the beginning of Epistemology of the closet: there are a wide range
> of “sexual” categories that we don’t think of, but that are still
> possible). Anyway, I agree with your interpretation too. All we've got here is
> the binary opposition between acts and identities. Let's say that I think this
> opposition is also reductive (but it will bring us too far).
>
>
> Still I find
> it interesting, because it also refers to some of Foucault’s statements on
> fist-fucking (mostly during interviews, like the one with Jean Le Bitoux, but never
> printed in a book …). There were (and still is) a sort of gay fist-fucking community,
> isn’t it?
>
>
> Moreover, I’m
> currently trying to develop a critique of some aspects of queer theory
> connected to my research, by emphasizing that the gap which exists between acts
> and identities, as two extreme and opposed terms, skips over the elements which
> historically connected them from candle to candle. For example: if you practice
> sodomy, one may infer that you like practicing sodomy; one can even infer that
> you practice sodomy because you have a preference for this practice, for
> various reasons; you can practice sodomy because you use it like a
> contraceptive, or because you just like it; always practice it, and never
> practice anything else; then watch a lot of porn movies, especially the sodomy scenes;
> have fantasies about sodomy; practice sodomy only with men; one can then infer
> that you have a particular taste for this practice, and that maybe it is part
> of your sexual preference; sexual orientation isn’t far away, and here you are
> a sodomy-lover, bringing out friends in your sodomy facebook group; if a
> psychiatrist’s surfing on the web, he may find your facebook community, and
> invent a new term to designated your weird practice, and maybe he will
> discuss your case with his colleagues.
>
>
> Okay, this
> example is quite strange, but here we haven’t acts or identities, but a various
> range of locus in which you have been psychologized and analyzed, probably in normative
> terms.
>
>
> My point is:
> between acts and identities, there are practices and behaviors, which are not as
> “one-time” as acts, and not as stable as identities, but which still allow
> categorization and psychological analysis.
>
>
> Therefore,
> Sedgwick’s pseudo-statement could allow me to make my case.
> Furthermore, is anyone interested in this subject / field of research ? I don't mean on sodomy, I mean on history of sexuality. Let me know !
> Best,
> Tiffany P.
>
> > Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 14:04:39 -0500
> > From: ryanspaul@xxxxxxxxx
> > To: foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: Re: [Foucault-L] PRECISION Need reference: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
> >
> > Or in other words, not that straight men who perform cunnilingus are
> > "closer to" or "more like" lesbians who perform cunnilingus than they are
> > to gay men or straight men who don't engage in this activity, but that
> > because sexual acts cut across conventional sexual identities, they reveal
> > the arbitrariness of those categories, and that erotic desire is not just
> > about who you want but also about what you want to do.
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 2:01 PM, Ryan Paul <ryanspaul@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > > I'm not sure where this particular idea appears in Sedgwick, but I would
> > > imagine that it is not expressed or intended in as reductive a way as you
> > > note. To me, it resonates with the generally propensity of queer theories
> > > to challenge sexuality as a stable identity and to refuse to reduce
> > > sexuality to the gender of the choice of sexual object. By putting emphasis
> > > back on the actions themselves and cutting across the constructed
> > > identities of straight, gay, bi, etc., we can perhaps better grasp desire's
> > > fluidity and remove it from a heteronormative or reproductive teleology.
> > >
> > > Best,
> > > RSP
> > >
> > >
> > > On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 1:52 PM, Nathaniel Roberts <npr4@xxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> > >
> > >> "...individuals who practice similar sorts of sex acts have more in
> > >> common
> > >> with one another than those who happen to be of the same gender."
> > >>
> > >> Really? Taken literally this seems to be saying that: 1) straight men who
> > >> perform cunnilingus have more in common with lesbian women who do the same
> > >> than they have with straight and gay men who don't, 2) straight women who
> > >> perform fellatio have more in common with gay men who do so than with
> > >> straight women who don't, 3) straight men who like to fuck their
> > >> girlfriends up the ass have more in common with gay men who fuck other
> > >> men.
> > >>
> > >> This sounds pretty reductive to me. But surely Sedgwick must have
> > >> something
> > >> else in mind, no?
> > >>
> > >> Nate
> > >>
> > >> > > From: princeptiffany@xxxxxxxxxx
> > >> > > To: foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > >> > > Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 16:37:19 +0100
> > >> > > Subject: [Foucault-L] Need reference: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
> > >> > >
> > >> > >
> > >> > > Hi everyone,
> > >> > > In "Revisiting Bodies and Pleasures", Judith Butler claims :
> > >> > > "Queer theorist Eve
> > >> > > Sedgwick suggests that it may be individuals who practice similar
> > >> sorts
> > >> > of sex
> > >> > > acts have more in common with one another than those who happen to be
> > >> of
> > >> > the
> > >> > > same gender. In this way, sexual alliances that cut across gender
> > >> appear
> > >> > to take the place of
> > >> > > gender-based solidarities, and queer activism, though indebted to
> > >> > feminism,
> > >> > > takes its distances from feminism through this formulation that
> > >> Foucault
> > >> > in
> > >> > > part inspired."(Theory, Culture, Society, avril 1999, 16 (2): 11-20,
> > >> URL
> > >> > <http://tcs.sagepub.com/content/16/2/11>)
> > >> > > I guess Sedgwick's statement is hiding in her Epistemology of the
> > >> > closet, but I'm struggling to find the relevant passage.
> > >> > > Is someone aware of such a passage ?
> > >> > > Thank you in advance,
> > >> > > Tiffany P.
> > >> > >
> > >> > > _______________________________________________
> > >> > > Foucault-L mailing list
> > >> >
> > >> > _______________________________________________
> > >> > Foucault-L mailing list
> > >> >
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> Dr. Nathaniel Roberts<
> > >> http://www.mmg.mpg.de/departments/religious-diversity/scientific-staff/dr-nathaniel-roberts/
> > >> >
> > >> Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity
> > >> Herman-Föge-Weg 11
> > >> 37073 Göttingen
> > >> Germany
> > >> +49 (0) 551-4956-0
> > >> _______________________________________________
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> > >
> > >
> > >
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