Le pluripartenariat sexuel : une communauté interstitielle ?

Abstract

With his concept of "sexuality dispositive", Michel Foucault shows how western contemporary society distinguishes good and evil based on sexual behaviour. The field of political struggle is today invested by people claiming specific sexual orientation. They manage to obtain recognition of rights particularly when such guidelines are developed in the context of a sexuality circumscribed within a strictly dyadic relationship. It is much more difficult for collective practices of sexuality which are likely to remain in the shadows. About Inuit societies, where such practices were common in the early twentieth century, Marcel Mauss has developed the concept of "sexual communism". Can we adapt that concept to relationships that are happening today in Western countries between practitioners of these forms of unorthodox sexualities? The analysis of the ways from which the fans of theses activities meet and maintain their relationships — or not — can help to understand the issues, boundaries and margins of manoeuvre of such practices. To what extent can this cause the formation of a kind of community? The following analysis identifies three main determinants of changes in contemporary western societies: 1 / development of individualism and empowerment of women, 2 / means of communication, 3 / monetary exchanges. The social agents involved participate in the development of emotional-sexual alternative ethics: "polyamory" and "swinging" are the two main patterns. They are marginal ethics but not unrelated to the dominant morality, just as in the gangs of Chicago that F.M. Thrasher analyzed in the "interstitial spaces" of a changing society. ; A partir du concept de dispositif de sexualité, Michel Foucault montre à quel point la société occidentale distingue le bien et le mal en fonction des attitudes et comportements sexuels. Si le terrain des luttes politiques est aujourd'hui investi par des personnes revendiquant une orientation sexuelle spécifique, et si ces personnes parviennent à faire reconnaître des droits en ...