The need of – and the quest for – sincerity and transparence may be considered the most distinctive feature of our time. The final outcome of such obsession with transparence has eventually brought about our present-day society of hyper-appearance. Sexuality is one of the main battlefields, where the imperative of transparency fights in order to establish its rule – as well as one of its most powerful weapons. Hyper-appearance, cast by absolute transparency as its inevitable consequence, should not be deemed just as a form of mass-narcissism: it is rather perceived as the last veritable source of authenticity of the I. Such structure, however, fatally clashes with the essentially symbolic nature of sexuality, which definitely requires nudity, but also mystery, silence, defeat, and the impossibility for desire to become the Other whilst desiring it. If the imperative of transparency presupposes reality as purely positive, entirely opened out, and thus controllable, sexuality reminds us that Otherness is essentially withdrawn, thus forever free from any project of control, because, as it happens with evidence, it is self-manifested yet it doesn’t show up.
La seduzione della trasparenza. Pornografia del reale e sessualità
Chiurco
2019-01-01
Abstract
The need of – and the quest for – sincerity and transparence may be considered the most distinctive feature of our time. The final outcome of such obsession with transparence has eventually brought about our present-day society of hyper-appearance. Sexuality is one of the main battlefields, where the imperative of transparency fights in order to establish its rule – as well as one of its most powerful weapons. Hyper-appearance, cast by absolute transparency as its inevitable consequence, should not be deemed just as a form of mass-narcissism: it is rather perceived as the last veritable source of authenticity of the I. Such structure, however, fatally clashes with the essentially symbolic nature of sexuality, which definitely requires nudity, but also mystery, silence, defeat, and the impossibility for desire to become the Other whilst desiring it. If the imperative of transparency presupposes reality as purely positive, entirely opened out, and thus controllable, sexuality reminds us that Otherness is essentially withdrawn, thus forever free from any project of control, because, as it happens with evidence, it is self-manifested yet it doesn’t show up.
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