In Defense of Eros

A debate between sex and performativity

Abstract

In this essay we develop the idea that there is an essential disparity in the way in which Gender Studies and psychoanalysis understand sex. This disparity requires clarification as a preliminary task to response to the critical allegations that psychoanalysis receives from the aforementioned studies (mainly the supposed promotion of heteronormativity and the reduction of sexual difference to an identitarian binarism).
Our paper covers first of all the proposal supported by J. Butler (1993) about sex as materialization effect of performativity, in which the functioning of power assumes an important explanatory role. Then we approach other philosophical contributions that point to an invariant and irreducible aspect of human sexuality and we link them with the one we understand is a properly psychoanalytic way of conceiving sex. Finally, we point out the impasses in Butler’s theory that are visible when considering enjoyment, drive and death.