Call for Papers Issue 12 (August 2025)—CLOSED
Posted on 2024-10-10Interdisciplinary Confluences regarding the Sexual Pleasure of Feminized Bodies
The year 1998 represents a turning point in the history of female sexual pleasure, due to the efforts by Australian urologist Hellen O’Connell, who showed a new—and complete—scientific description of the clitoris. The fact that Viagra was commercialized that same year is just a piece of information, seemingly anecdotic, that reflects the disparity between the studies dedicated to the male bodies and pleasures, and those centered on the female bodies and pleasures. From that date onwards, a new kind of female sexual revolution began, while at the same time, the role played by women during crucial periods of change in previous epochs came under scrutiny. We know that the sexual revolution at the end of the 1960’s and the decade of the 1970’s managed to overthrow many moral barriers about sex, the body, and customs. The right to contraception with the pill was obtained, and in some countries, the right to abort was granted; however, feminists have revisited these breakthroughs in order not to deny them, but to show other nuances. It is said that, in theory, there was a general concern with the female orgasm, while in practice, women had to back up men’s preconceptions regarding female sexuality. Thus, the paradigm of the sexual revolution in the year 68 was the dominant male view on sexuality: heterosexual and penetrative. Despite major efforts, such as Carla Lonzi’s manifesto “The Clitoridian Woman and the Vaginal Woman” (1970), the reality is that female pleasure was never at the forefront. Hence the insistence that it is right now when, at the beginning of the XXIst Century, the real sexual revolution for women is taking place, and we need to concentrate on the task at hand as a lot remains to be done.
For the past two decades, the theme of female pleasure has raised, in different disciplines, an unprecedented interest. Instances of this are the book published in 2020 by philosopher Catherine Malabou, titled Pleasure Erased: The Clitoris Unthought, in which she explores women’s pleasure and the presence (or rather the absence) that the clitoris has had in philosophy; the most recent study by sociologist Delphine Gardey, The Political History of the Clitoris (2021), and the previous volume that same author edited, together with Marilène Vuille, The Sciences of Desire: Female Sexuality from Psychoanalysis to Neurosciences (2018); or the analysis by professor and cinema critic Iris Brey: Sex and the Series (2018). To the aforementioned titles, we should add the essay by lawyer and psychologist Patricia Rivas Lis titled History of Aquation: Archaeology of a Silence (2021), and Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence (2018), by specialist in Gender Studies Kristen R. Ghodsee. In the field of sexology, we find the book Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life (2015), by Emily Nagoski, and halfway between essay and literary creation, Stuff and Fuck without Guilt (2019), by writer and activist María del Mar Ramón. One aspect that characterizes most of the books so far alluded is the way in which they build upon the work of both feminist studies and theorical contributions from other discourses in order to analyze and rethink those social, cultural, and historical phenomena that have shaped and affected the sexual pleasure of feminized bodies. That is the reason why they are powerful dissertations on the way the history of pleasure has been written not only from the perspective of psychoanalysis and sexology, but also (re)written in a discursive back and forth among different disciplines.
It is not fortuitous that this new perspective about female pleasure coincides temporarily, and many times, formally with the peak of queer theories and the most recent gender studies, since they share a radical questioning to hegemonic and heteropatriarchal forms, even though they can have different agendas. Bearing in mind the always diverse notions on representations and expressions of feminized bodies, we would like to build bridges between certain feminisms and some branches of queer theory, for we aim at studying the bodies that do not necessarily incarnate the hegemonic masculinity and femininity (cisgender, heterosexual), as well as the feminine bodies and the bodies of women. We cannot forget that the notion of gender brings forth norms and prohibitions; thus, it is important to clarify that when we talk about the feminine and women, we are not thinking in terms of essentialist categories, but political tools. We acknowledge, as Butler suggests, the strategically provisional character of the sign woman because it will always be a term in dispute, with the potential to be recontextualized and resignified.
Nuevas Poligrafías. Revista de Teoría Literaria y Literatura Comparada calls for specialists in the areas of literature, arts, and humanities in general to submit unpublished and original articles that address the subject of the sexual pleasure of feminized bodies, their representations and discursive challenges. Some suggested topics are:
- Representations and the analysis of pleasure in the arts (literature, music, and plastic arts, among others)
- Pleasure and the female gaze in film theory and creation
- Pleasure and the concept of female gaze in artistic languages: theorical and creative transferals
- Economic and political intersections regarding the theme of pleasure
- Crossroads between medicine, sexology, and culture
- Pleasure in feminisms and Gender Studies
- Neuroscience, sexuality, and creation
- Pleasure: between the imaginary and the symbolic
- Linguistic analysis on sexual pleasure
- Technology and pleasure in artistic practices
- Intersectional perspective about pleasure. Uneasy dialogues?
- Representations of non-binary experiences and pleasures
- Pleasure and Cultural Studies
All contributions must adhere to the general requirements and editorial guidelines established by the journal, and must be submitted through the editorial manager of the journal’s website. Although we receive contributions all year round, the deadline for papers to be included in the 12th issue is 1 February 2025. The publication of issue 12 of the journal is scheduled for August 2025.