Sujet du désir/ sujet du féminisme. Notes sur la division du sujet de #MeToo

Abstract

#MeToo hails the comeback of the decried “subject of feminism”: if not women as unified subjects, at least women subjects united across class, race, and even sexual orientation dividing lines, through the common experience of sexual violence at the hands of men. It warns us, then, it seems, against taking too quick a break from feminism. The outcry, and its repeated occasions, sound like a vindication of Catharine Mackinnon’s understanding of sexuality as a universal apparatus of male domination. Yet, a closer look at some of the scenes leading up to the drama that now goes by this name, complicates the matter at stake. Domination and seduction may overlap where sexuality is concerned, causing the subject of desire and the “subject of feminism” to split, but they needn’t coincide. A new theory – and practice – of seduction may be called for in order to bridge the gap between the two “subjects”.