Critical Hedonism(s): The Reification of Desire

​How are our sexual identities and desires shaped by our positions within capitalism? How do exchange relations enter into our social and erotic lives, as we perpetually negotiate our own value and the value of others in the quest to make ends meet and improve our positions in the world? How do we simplify and tame our desires and identities in order to make them legible and appealing within the resulting social and sexual hierarchies? And what happens if we refuse to optimise our appearances, affectations, and dispositions in order to increase our social and erotic capital? This discussion, which is based upon Kevin Floyd’s book The Reification of Desire, seeks to explore these questions, and in so doing, seeks to bridge the gap between queer theory and critiques of capitalism.