Female Pleasure in the Academy Through Erotic Power

Female Pleasure in the Academy Through Erotic Power

Women entering the academy is a recent historical phenomenon. Subsequently, women have had to take on the historical legacy of androcentric/masculinist ways of thinking of the institution in order to pursue an academic life. More recently, neoliberalism in the academy has increased the complexity of the experience of women academics. Therefore taking pleasure in the academy holds even greater challenges for women as academic life and women themselves are shaped by neoliberalism to support the (androcentric/masculinist) status quo. On the other hand, feminist scholarship resources female academics with alternate ways of knowledge production, beyond androcentric frameworks and beyond neoliberal constructions and mystifications. These alternate ways of working present women with avenues to journey out of androcentric modes of thinking, journeying towards being able to work with an increasing authentic female self. One of these ways is through encountering and reengaging with the eroticism of the human life force. Thus, embracing eros within the constructions of a neoliberal academy means new questions can be given voice and new imaginings made possible. In addressing women’s experience in the neoliberal academy, this chapter provides a model that gives expression to an increasingly authentic female self through engaging intellectual virtues, thereby increasing the possibilities for pleasure through the co-optation of an entrepreneurial self.

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