Are the Lips a Grave?

This essay articulates a queer feminist ethics of eros by rereading Luce Irigaray through a Foucauldian lens. After an inquiry into Irigaray’s absence from queer theory, the essay makes a case for Irigaray as a resource for queer thinking by exploring the philosophical antifoundationalism she and queer theorists share. Focusing specifically on the antisocial thesis of queer theory, especially in the work of Leo Bersani and Janet Halley, the essay first examines the contentious relation between feminist and queer conceptions of sexual ethics before addressing new possibilities for a queer feminist ethics. Reading Irigaray’s ethics of eros through an ethical Foucauldian lens, the essay accomplishes three objectives: (1) it analyzes the virtually unexplored relation between Irigaray and Foucault to make the case for a queer Irigaray; (2) it unravels the aporetic knot of sexual ethics at the heart of queer feminist splits; and (3) it deepens our philosophical understanding of sexual difference and erotic desubjectivation in modernity by elaborating a queer feminist ethics.