AUTHOR=Dess Nancy K. 

TITLE=Stardust and feminism: A creatureliness agenda

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1039210

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1039210

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>People are living, breathing creatures. Dominant feminist discourses are situated within <italic>hegemonic human exceptionalism</italic> (HHE) which, by framing the body in terms of human forms of meaning-making and social life, eschews first-order embodiment (or <italic>creatureliness</italic>) as worthy of inquiry. Here, well-known reasons for avoidance of “the biological” are briefly summarized and an argument is advanced for meta-theoretical centering of creatureliness. A three-pronged agenda is proposed that embraces the creaturely body without the “-isms” (e.g., essentialism) and “-izings” (e.g., so-called “naturalizing”) that subvert feminist commitments. By unsettling HHE, executing the agenda would promote broader feminist coalitions and new scholarly collaborations aimed at fleshing out gender.</p>