Sex, Gender, Becoming - PULP

Introduction
Towards a politics of living
KARIN VAN MARLE
All the chapters in this volume in one way or another, implicitly or
explicitly, reflect on change and transformation and how these
changes/ transformations affect our sexed and gendered lives. In the
present South African context, thinking about change/ transformation
encompasses the law (legal change), politics and society. The
continuance of binaries, objectifications and the maintenance of
patriarchy notwithstanding these changes are teased out in various
themes by the different authors. Connected to the former we also find
attachments to ‘private’ mindsets in contrast to ‘public’ or political
ones and the consequences of capitalist consumerism, poverty and
sexual violence. The contributions expose also how new approaches
to how we live sex and gender do not necessarily manage to break or
even radically challenge the old. From new technologies that can
‘transform’ gender, new forms of pornography, freedom of sexual
orientation, the creation of shopping malls, attempts to understand
reproductive choices, restorative justice as response to sexual
violence, women’s testimonies, women’s mobility — all attempts are
still hindered by conventional frameworks, structures and thought. A
central call that emerges from all the contributions is one for more
theory and more gender sensitive research and more listening to
previously silenced voices.
Below, as a way of introducing this volume, I refer briefly to a few
ideas or thoughts that I find suggestive for sex and gender politics in
the current South African context. Adriana Cavarero’s feminist
retelling of the story of Penelope provides a starting point for
resistance to and refusal of established orders. 1 Her reliance on
Hannah Arendt, in particular Arendt’s notions of birth or new
beginning and storytelling, is significant. In this context I find the
features of birth and storytelling important for their connection with
life. I have previously focused on Julia Kristeva’s reading of Arendt as
a theorist for whom life was a central concern. 2 The chapters in this
volume all in one way or another theoretically or practically share a
concern with sexed and gendered lives and ways to challenge and
improve.
1 A Cavarero In spite of Plato (1995).
2
K van Marle ‘Lifes of action and revolt – A feminist call for becoming in
postapartheid South Africa’ (2004) 3 South African Public Law 605.
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