Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex

Synonymous with “exclusion,” abjection describes the state of being othered by society. Julia Kristeva says that abjection occurs when the boundaries between the self and societal taboos are blurred. In post-structuralism, abjection inspires revulsion because it undermines or disturbs cultural norms. Abjected beings are excluded from cultural roles and activities.

In Bodies That Matter, Butler highlights how subjects are often defined in opposition to abjected beings. However, they highlight abjection as a potential site of subversive power.

Butler engages with the concept of the chora by drawing on the works of Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva. For Irigaray, the chora is Plato’s concept of matter as it relates to the feminine. Irigaray argues that the chora represents materiality before it is shaped by the masculine. Materiality as chora cannot be captured by any discursive category as it is not yet intelligible. In Kristeva’s theory, the chora refers to an unstable, prelinguistic, and semiotic space that exists before the establishment of clear distinctions and symbolic order. It represents a realm of undifferentiated and fluid forces that precedes language and structured meaning.

In the context of Bodies That Matter, the chora becomes a conceptual space where the materiality of bodies resists being fully captured or regulated by linguistic and symbolic structures.