The practice of politics: transforming subjectivities in the domestic domain and the public sphere

Contemporary politics seems to be characterised by the competing claims of identity groups, and, with opposing groups drawing upon the rhetoric of tru th and justice, it has become increasingly more difficult to adjudicate the se claims. Recognising the limits of a politics based on established identi ties, Michel Foucault articulated a political project that sought to develo p new forms of experience and subjectivity. lit an age when men have been p opularly described as coming from Mars and women from Venus, it seems unlik ely that gender identities in the private sphere might offer an example for politics in the public sphere. Despite the view that women and men compris e opposing and conflicting identity groups, I propose that gendered domesti c practices and subjectivities can be seen as being constantly negotiated a nd transformed Using examples from several households, I argue that suppose dly fixed and exclusive feminine and masculine subject positions can be mad e to seem precarious and tenuous, such that the possibility of generating n ew experiences and subjectivities is ever present. I suggest that this disc ursive strategy might be drawn upon to destabilise seemingly entrenched sub ject positions that form the basis of oppositional politics in the public s phere, and to generate new political subjectivities.