Citizenship and Sexuality: Contributions by Carole Pateman and Judith Butler to Sexual Citizenship

Abstract

This article explores the contributions of Carole Pateman and Judith Butler to the conceptualization of sexual citizenship, with a particular focus on the relationships between citizenship, sexuality, and exclusion. First, it examines Pateman’s arguments on sexual difference as a political difference in the construction of citizenship, as well as her proposal for the inclusion of women through the political revaluation of motherhood. It then addresses Butler’s critique of the cisheterosexist ontological frameworks that condition the recognition of sexual dissidences as citizen-subjects, along with her concept of performative contradiction as a destabilizing strategy against these exclusionary frameworks. Finally, their proposals for inclusion in citizenship are reassessed considering contemporary debates on sexuality and citizenship.