UNEARTHING ECOSEXUALITY

Abstract

In this article, ecosexuality – as popularized by activist-artists Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle – is explored through archaeological and genealogical means. Through an archaeological lens, what emerges is that ecosexuality, notwithstanding its provocative appearance, follows in the discursive footsteps of thinkers associated with critical environmental thought, such as Herbert Marcuse of the Frankfurt School and the materialist ecofeminist Ariel Salleh. Briefly, ecosexuality features the emergence of erotic nature as a discursive object entailing motifs either explicit or implicit in the work of the above thinkers. However, through a genealogical lens, what emerges is that ecosexuality undermines the difference it might otherwise entail by remaining entangled in the discourses and subjectivities associated with what Michel Foucault terms the deployment of sexuality. This results in some profound contradictions that ecosexual scholars and activists need to engage with far more critically than they have done to date, to avoid the movement reaching an impasse.