Critical Hedonism(s): The Pleasures and Displeasures of Gender

For many people, gender is a terrible burden: to be assigned to one that limits you or pigeonholes how you are perceived and/or treated is one of the major and ongoing sources of injustices in so many of our lives. Feminist theorists have long articulated critiques of the way that assigned genders limit freedom, cause harm, and generally perpetuate misery. But a more recent flush of voices—largely led by transgender writers—have described the euphoria, excitement, and pleasure of leaning into a gender when it’s deliberately chosen. As Andrea Long Chu argues, the bodily and social experiences of being feminine can be profoundly exciting, erotic and pleasurable. Gender, for her, is less about expressing who we ‘really are’ than chasing a desire (in her case, for makeup, being soft, and getting to be an object of desire). The utopia that Long Chu and others gesture towards is one in which genders are chosen, rather than assigned. But does this address the myriad displeasures (and downright dangers) that gender still poses? Join us as we explore these and other questions pertaining to the hedonistic dimensions of gender. CFITICAL HEDONISM(S) is a free and open-to-the-public discussion space for exploring and interrogating topics, prompts, and questions pertaining to the politics of desire. The starting point of Critical Hedonism(s) is the realization that an essential part of changing the world is changing what we want, aspire for, and take pleasure in. Monthly discussions like this one offer a crucial method for understanding how desire is organized in our culture, and how it might be organized differently. We explore the injustices of desire, the ways in which it is used to manipulate, motivate and stratify, and how it is shaped by institutions. We also explore the inherent challenges of hedonism, and consider what kinds of frameworks could be used to mediate our relationship with it. For more about Critical Hedonism(s), see https://www.criticalhedonisms.com