Introduction

This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the part two of this book. The part develops a radical critique of heterosexuality which posits heterosexuality as the major way in which masculinity and femininity are produced in a relationship of domination and subordination. It examines the challenge posed to this critique of heterosexuality by recent arguments for a ‘virgin heterosexuality’ and a postmodern ‘queer heterosexuality’. The part suggests that recent American feminist performance has been the site of powerful destabilizations of gender and sexual identities. It discusses the use three performers such as Annie Sprinkle, Janice Perry and Kate Bornstein, make of their bodies in order to explore shifting gender identities. The part emphasizes that the many and varied representations of the female body in their performances self-consciously and playfully fetishize the body and in so doing assert the agency of the subject to challenge binary categories of gender and sexuality.