NORMALIZING DESIRE – DESIRING NORMALITY: BODIES, DESIRES, AND KINSHIP IN SCIENTIFIC, POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE

• Annika K. Thiem Department of New Testament, Unisa University of California

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7833/90-0-1066

Abstract

This paper inquires into assumptions on sexuality and kinship in religious and theological interventions in the debates around same-sex marriage and assisted reproduction. I am especially concerned about how a steadfast investment in “the natural” and “the normal” haunts these debates. Not only does the Roman Catholic Church object to same-sex relations, but the supporters of same-sex marriage often equally rely on the sexual and erotic privilege of the monogamous couple, which serves as the basis for “normal” family life. This “normality” is completed by the fulfillment of the desire to raise children, a creation of the model modern family that increasingly, for both heterosexuals and homosexuals, includes assisted reproductive technologies. In both discussions, how the family is defined focuses on the body and on its legal, medical, and scientific status. The aim of this paper is to ask in what ways the horizons of intelligibility and practices of recognition structure who and what we can become.