Cyberfeminists and women: Foucault's notion of identity

Abstract

The article addresses the question of gender-identity and its relationship to embodiment. It renders the natural or self-evident status of gender-identity problematic and inquires into the philosophical constitution of its meaning. I will first briefly present some of the standard ideas about identity that prevail in our culture, and then introduce Michel Foucault's notion of identity as an alternative to these ideas. In Foucault's thought, identity is not a metaphysical notion, but (importantly) a political notion that is necessary for those strategies of power through which human beings are made subjects. The article will study the consequences of Foucault's notion of identity for our understanding of gender-identity, while also evaluating its political significance.