Abstract:
This article argues that although gender is no longer widely
considered to be a property of individuals, the alternative of viewing
it in terms of performativity, where it is the outcome of linguistic and
social performances unnecessarily limits the possibilities of thinking
of gender as a form of multiplicity that is both internally and externally
differentiated. Any attempt to move beyond binary thinking in
gender relations initiates a consideration of multiplicity, and the way
in which multiplicity is conceptualized exerts a critical influence on
the possibilities that are opened up. This article interrogates existing
understandings of multiplicity and finds three actual or possible types
- multiplicities of the same, characteristic of feminist approaches
which we critique through a reconceptualization of desire; multiplicities
of the third, characterized by anthropological, transgender and
queer theory approaches; and multiplicities of difference and dispersion,
typified by the rhizomatics and fluid theorizing of Deleuze and
Guattari, Grosz and Olkowski. We propose an ontology of gender
as a creative and productive form of desire, realized as proliferation
in Deleuze and Guattari's model of the rhizome. Gender identity is accordingly rethought as immanence, intensity and consistency.
