Pharmacopornographic Subjectivity in the Work of Paul B. Preciado
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Pharmacopornographic Subjectivity in the Work of Paul B. Preciado Sofia Ropek Hewson Pembroke College, July 2018 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Abstract Pharmacopornographic Subjectivity in the Work of Paul B. Preciado Sofia Ropek Hewson This thesis examines ‘pharmacopornographic’ subjectivity in the work of contemporary Spanish philosopher, Paul B. Preciado, and represents the first extended study of his work. In Preciado’s writing, ‘pharmacopornographic’ describes the entwined influence and dominance of the pharmaceutical and pornographic industries, and the thesis analyses how they produce ‘pharmacopornographic’ subjects. This thesis explores Preciado’s writing on gender, sexuality, pornography, drugs and power between 2002 and 2014 and articulates an emergent trans-feminism. This research analyses how pharmacological and pornographic industries affect the design and production of genders and subjectivities. The thesis further refines Preciado’s assertion that contemporary, ‘pharmacopornographic’ regimes of power produce subjects rather than objects, or people, rather than things. Ultimately, this research is concerned with understanding the production of pharmacologically-determined subjectivity. The thesis articulates various subject positions, as a means of theorising pharmacopornographic subjectivity: ‘The Voyeur’, ‘The Sex Worker’, ‘The Biodrag King’ and ‘The Junkie’. These subject-position chapters are prefaced with a chapter exploring theoretical frameworks used to analyse Preciado’s work, and the thesis concludes with a chapter on accelerationism and the microprosthetic scale of Testo Junkie. 2 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 5 Micropolitics ........................................................................................................................ 19 The Voyeur .......................................................................................................................... 49 The Sex Worker ................................................................................................................... 81 The Biodrag King .............................................................................................................. 111 The Junkie.......................................................................................................................... 140 Accelerationism and Xenofeminism ................................................................................. 170 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 202 Reference List .................................................................................................................... 206 • This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Introduction and specified in the text. • It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Introduction and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Introduction and specified in the text. • It does not exceed the prescribed word limit for the relevant Degree Committee. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding my research, and the Cambridge Trust for their Honorary Vice-Chancellor’s Award. I would like to thank the supportive community of Pembroke College. I would like to thank Martin Crowley, Gerald Moore, Thomas Wynn, Bill Burgwinkle, Ian James, Patricia MacCormack, Eleri Anona Watson, Oliver Burnham, Eve Ropek and Alan Hewson, for their encouragement in relation to this project and other research. 4 Introduction ‘Feminism is about the sciences of the multiple subject with (at least) double vision’, Donna Haraway (1988, p. 589). This thesis examines ‘pharmacopornographic’ subjectivity in the work of Spanish philosopher, Paul B. Preciado, and represents the first extended study of his work. In Preciado’s writing, ‘pharmacopornographic’ describes the entwined influence and dominance of the pharmaceutical and pornographic industries; here, I analyse how these industries produce ‘pharmacopornographic’ subjects. Accordingly, this thesis explores Preciado’s writing on gender, sexuality, pornography, drugs and power between 2000 and 2014 and articulates a new trans-feminism. Preciado is a contemporary writer, working on gender, sexuality, pornography, architecture and histories of the body. He studied for an MA at The New School for Social Research, where he worked with Ágnes Heller and Jacques Derrida. After his Masters, Preciado completed a PhD in architecture at Princeton: ‘Gender, Sexuality, and the Biopolitics of Architecture: From the Secret Museum to Playboy’, part of which was published as Pornotopia in 2014. Preciado published Manifiesto Contrasexual in 2002 (also translated into French and forthcoming in English), and Testo Yonqi, his most recent text, in 2008 (translated into both French and English). Most recently, Preciado was Professor of Gender Theory at Université Paris VIII, directed a research programme at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, and worked as a curator and director for documenta 14 – an art festival in Kassel and Athens. Preciado previously identified as a lesbian woman and, later, non-binary; in 2015, Preciado changed his name from Beatriz to Paul Beatriz and now identifies as a transgender man. He writes of his name change: ‘Lorsqu’on disait “elle” pour me qualifier, c’était une blessure, alors j’ai décidé de changer de nom. Aujourd’hui, chaque fois que quelqu’un m’appelle Paul, c’est un acte de coopération qui devient un acte de résistance politique’ (2015). Preciado’s Manifiesto Contrasexual (2013) is an exploration of sadomasochism, dildos and sexuality, featuring drawings and sexual contracts. Preciado’s later two books focus on his theorisation of ‘pharmacopornography’, and the interaction between 5 pharmacology and pornography in the construction of subjectivity. Pornotopia analyses architecture, architectural embodiment and the history of modern pornography. Testo Junkie combines critical theory, philosophy and experimental narrative in an examination of the effects, and affects, of testosterone. Preciado’s narrative in the latter is also auto- experimental: he takes ‘Testogel’ (testosterone gel) illicitly, rather than as a ‘medicine’ for gender dysphoria, and observes and notes the resultant bodily changes; his narrative is interspersed with theory relating to gender and sexual politics, pornography and contemporary drugs. Testo Junkie also depicts Preciado mourning his friend, Guillaume Dustan, and beginning a relationship with his (now former) partner, Virginie Despentes. Critical background, terminology and approach Testo Junkie contributes to the genre of trans-memoir exemplified by Kate Bornstein’s Gender Outlaw (1994) or Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl (2007). But Testo Junkie also explores histories of medical technologies and their contribution to pharmacopornography and subjectivity, demonstrating historical scope akin to Susan Stryker’s Transgender History (2008). Preciado writes about how we construct body ‘fictions’, or narratives through various prostheses – including, for example, Ritalin, Viagra, dildos or contraceptives (p. 12). Preciado insists on our collective complicity in pharmacopornography, emphasises the materiality of trans bodies, explores the colonial history of modern contraceptives, and writes vivid messy sex scenes. Preciado’s voice alternates between teasing, playful, mournful and assertively theoretical. Testo Junkie also negotiates crucial movements in queer theory: the text explores mourning and grief, and, simultaneously, the exciting, confusing possibility of taking testosterone and re-shaping bodies. Preciado embeds himself in queer theories negating reproduction, following Lee Edelman, as well as exemplifying hopeful queer futurity, following José Esteban Muñoz. In sum, Testo Junkie represents a fresh, rich, assertively contradictory contribution to trans- feminist theory. Although Preciado’s work has never been explored at this length before, a number of writers have engaged with his texts – mostly writing on Testo Junkie: Helen Hester, McKenzie Wark, Elliot Evans, Ann Pasek and Joshua Rivas are the main critical points of reference in the following thesis. Helen Hester’s article, ‘Synthetic Gender and the Limits of Micropolitics’ examines Preciado’s theory in relation to affirmations and criticisms of accelerationism (2015). Hester’s most recent book on feminist accelerationism was 6 endorsed by Preciado, and Hester writes that Preciado’s subjectivity experimentation inspired her elaboration of ‘xenofeminism’ (2018, p. 89). In a review of his work, Hester writes that Preciado’s project might need to be ‘scaled up’, but also notes that Testo Junkie provides us with a ‘meaningful vision for a potential technomaterialist feminist project’ that recognises the body as