Critique of Binarity. On the Aesthetic Rearticulation of a Feminist Imperative

Abstract

Feminist critiques of binaries—such as those between nature and culture or between “women” and “men”—have become widely established in recent decades, to the point of being rarely questioned. According to ecofeminist theory, the political dismantling of societal structures of oppression can only be achieved through a prior epistemological rejection of binary thinking. In contrast, this article argues for the methodological retention of the conceptual binary between culture and nature as a prerequisite for overcoming the gender binary in political terms. It is only by recognizing the structurally hierarchical relationship between nature and culture as such that the political responsibility for shaping this relationship becomes evident. This argument has methodological implications for the philosophical conceptualization of nature: A political critique of the gender binary cannot be achieved merely by replacing the biologistic concept of nature inherent to difference feminism with a neo-materialist concept of nature as advanced by ecofeminism. Instead, what is required is a reactivation of an alternative, aesthetic concept of nature—one that affirms the binary of nature and culture in a way that politicizes the societal naturalization of cultural binaries.
Keywords: Nature, Culture, Binary, Dichotomy, Aesthetics

Bibliography: Hunter, Leonie: Kritik der Binarität. Zur ästhetischen Aktualisierung einer feministischen Forderung, FZG – Freiburger Zeitschrift für GeschlechterStudien, 2025, pp. 83-98.