Citation

Meeks C. Socio. Theor. 2001; 19(3): 325-343.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, American Sociological Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/0735-2751.00144

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper discusses the sexual politics of anti-normalization within the context of the sociological discussions of civil society and the public sphere. The sexual politics of anti-normalization is less centered around "identity" as a means of securing group solidarity and representing sexual communities in civil society. A politics of anti-normalization comprehends identity as a means of normalizing and regulating sexual desire and difference. Anti-normalization entails the politicization of ethical-moral issues concerning sex and desire and the production of sexual differences beyond the usual opposition of heterosexuality to homosexuality. I discuss the ways that the theoretical discourses on civil society reduce conceptions of difference to identity and develop a framework for analyzing the sexual politics of difference "beyond identity" in the public sphere.

Language: en