Back to Sex als "beyond binary". Kulturwissenschaftliche Überlegungen zur Relevanz des Biologischen

Abstract

Current biological research shows that sex is by no means as unambiguous and binary as previously assumed. Against the backdrop of contemporary debates in biological sciences about a gender difference "beyond binary" and in light of deconstructivist and posthumanist materialist concepts, this article unfolds a renewed perspective on feminist epistemologies of gender, nature, and the body. The focus is on whether and how biology can be a site from which to think difference beyond binarity. The paper is intended as a plea for increased consideration of biological theories of bodily difference in cultural studies. Given existing attempts to cement the two-gender order in public discourse, it seems all even more urgent to make empirical-revised research in the biological sciences visible and to challenge binary thinking not against but with biology.

Keywords

• material feminism
• beyond binary
• deconstruction
• two-gender system
• materiality
• posthumanist theory