Naked Sex in Exile : On the Paradox of the « Sex Question » in Feminism and in Science

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_40470
Type
A part of a book
Collection
Publications
Title
Naked Sex in Exile : On the Paradox of the « Sex Question » in Feminism and in Science
Title of the book
Women, Science, and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science Studies
Author(s)
Kraus Cynthia
Publisher
Routledge
ISBN
0415926068
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2001
Editor
Mary Wyer Mary Barbercheck Donna Giesman Hatice Örün Öztürk Marta Wayne
Pages
254-273
Language
english
Notes
Abstract of the chapter: Is there anything left to "sex" that is not the "gender construction of biology"? With the fruit fly, this article seeks to rethink the substance of sexual difference--here called "naked sex"--as that part of sex which rebuffs the gender microscope. Naked sex haunts the terms by which feminist scholars have deconstructed the (un)scientific construction of sex, and have challenged biological determinism and gender biases in science. The sex-determining genes appear as the minimal bundle for this returning residue which secures the epistemology of gender that is naked sex. The experimental history (1976-1979) of the Drosophila sex-determining gene, Sex-lethal, displaces the insistent question of "what is real/biological about biological sex" toward an inquiry into the "realization" of sex through sexing and unsexing research practices, wherein sex becomes scientifically performative. Unexpectedly, sex never emerges as naked sex throughout this singular exploration of "How to Do Scientific Things with Sex" in the lab.
Keywords
Feminism - Sex - Gender - Science - Biology - Genetic - Sex Determination - Fruit Fly - Performative
Create date
19/11/2007 10:18
Last modification date
20/08/2019 13:38
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