Sex Outlaw. The Intrinsic Limits of the Law in Gender Differences

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15167/2279-5057/AG2019.8.15.1055

Abstract

Abstract: With respect to gender equality, what can or cannot the law do? The question is first and foremost dealt with through the perspective of Michel Foucault’s political philosophy, aimed at pinpointing the limits of the law and the limits of a politics of rights, then through the point of view of anthropology (Claude Lévi-Strauss) and psychoanalysis (Jacques Lacan) on gender difference and, in particular, the interpretation given by Slavoj Žižek. From the analysis of sexual difference as “real/impossible” a perspective comes to light: while, on the one hand, the law can not constitutively lead to an equalization of genders, since these are inhabited by a real/impossible excess, on the other precisely said excess leads to the need for a constant re-articulation of the law and its symbolic order. 

Keywords: Foucault, Lévi-Strauss, Lacan, gender equality, law.

Published

2019-07-10