Structure or Apparatus: How To (Re)Think Sexual Difference Nowadays?

This article aims to examine and rethink the concept of sexual difference in the contemporaneity, considering the changes in the fields of sexuality and family, which interrogate the ahistoricity and the immutability of this category. In the first part, the article brings the structuralist interpretation of sexual difference, from Françoise Héritier’s theory, and a (negative) lecture of the culture by Michel Schneider based on the sexual difference as structure. In the second part, a work of deconstruction of the category of sexual difference, taken as apparatus, not as structure, will be carried out. Ideas from Joel Birman, Judith Butler, Sabine Prokhoris and Deleuze and Guattari will be presented, aiming at breaking with sexual difference’s ontology and valorising multiple differences.

Keywords:
Sexual Difference; Contemporaneity; Structure; Apparatus; Differences