The Ambivalence of Recognition in Sexual Subjectivity

This paper addresses the problem of sexual misrecognition: some groups are excluded from being seen as sexually desirable or are hypersexualised. This shapes their sexual subjectivity – how they understand themselves as sexual agents. Despite widespread initiatives calling for recognition in the domain of sexuality, the need for sexual recognition has remained undertheorised in recognition theory. Building on debates on the ambivalence of recognition, I argue that sexuality has a uniquely complex relationship to recognition. While sexual recognition is necessary for subjectivity, it also reinforces subjection to power structures. Moreover, sexuality continually transgresses sociality and subjectivity itself. Using Jeanette Chedda’s erotic story in Damn Horny as a case study, I demonstrate how sexual recognition transgresses ideals of mutuality and equality, and theorise transformative possibilities for cultivating sexual subjectivity differently.