Scandalous Bodies and the Abject Zone of Cybererotica: Terrorizing the Heterosexual Matrix

• In Event: Violence and Psychoanalysis

Abstract

The study engages the question of representation of bodies and sexualities to suggest that the website Sehakia offers a copious display of queer Arab women’s signifying practices that open up possibilities for nonheteronormative transgressions. More concretely, Al Kawthar’s erotic story is examined to argue that her “performative writing” offers spaces for the counter hegemonic desire that is intentionally transgressive in its nonheteronormative performances and articulations of resistance. The analysis draws from both Judith Butler and Julia Kristeva’s theories of abjection to submit that queer Arab women’s bodies are organized as politically subversive bodies. Butler’s concept of bodily abjection is especially notable for it offers a lens through which to examine queer Arab women’s bodies and sexualities as disruptive, forever resignifying and rearticulating the borders of sexual normativity.

Author

• Naida Zukic, University of Minnesota