Bodies and Pleasures

[slemslempike]

Some quotes I liked from Ladelle McWhorter's book Bodies and Pleasures: Foucault and the Politics of Sexual Normalization (1999).

'I am older and wiser, more patient and sedate*.
(In footnote) * Ask anyone.'

'People who say "just let go and feel the music" are complete idiots.'

'Too many of us - the most highly educated of us especially - assume that if we've read a few books, understood the arguments, and maybe written some words about them here and there, we have therefore undergone those books' radical critiques f the most fundamental truths of our culture. This tendency is probably one of the most obvious vestiges of our resilient Cartesianism. We believe we can change our minds without changing our hearts, without changing our bodies, without changing our lives.'

Comments

[whatho.livejournal.com]

I like these. Especially 'People who say "just let go and feel the music" are complete idiots'.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I know! It comes in a section about how she came to start line dancing, and how much she loves it, having to learn how to change how she works with her body and feels it. And she says that it was really difficult for her to dance at all, and that people who thinks it's easy are FOOLS.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

So true. "Come on, you'll enjoy it!" - Great Lies of Our Time #375.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Just pretend no-one's watching - I am, and when no-one's watching I STILL DON'T DANCE.

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

When I did some ballroom dancing, it was a revelation! I always thought I can't dance, but actually I can if I'm taught steps - I can fit them to the music and improvise with those steps. But years of thinking the only way of 'dancing' was 'feeling the music and letting go' held me back.

[anglaisepaon.livejournal.com]

Those are the best kind of footnotes.

Odd how even after all this time, the mention of Foucault still makes me shudder.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I hadn't really read any before PhD work, and I just comfort myself with the thought that at least it's not Deleuze.