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Ecstasy Unlimited: The Interpenetrations of Sex and Capita!

Laura Kipnis

1985 00:59:54 United StatesEnglishColorMono4:3Video

Description

Ecstasy Unlimited is an engaging video essay on the social construction of sexuality. Kipnis attempts to historicize pleasure and politicize desire, to reveal within the current discourse on sex — and within an ensemble of current sexual practices — the production of forms of sexuality that work to guarantee social order, rather than subvert it. Through various narrative ploys and theoretical tactics, the tape attempts to recover traces of a "political unconscious" in contemporary social malaise. Kipnis practices humor as well as social critique; she employs fragmented situation comedy, documentary, songs, animation, and narration to develop an analysis linking discourses of liberation to thriving sex and therapy industries.

About Laura Kipnis

Chicago-based videomaker and cultural critic Laura Kipnis’ work is richly informed by her post-Marxist, post-structuralist, post-feminist, post-everything sense of humor. Her often irreverent tapes form piercing analyses of contemporary debates with an unpretentious feminist slant. Her books include Bound and Gagged: The Politics of Fantasy in America (1996) and Against Love: A Polemic (2003). Kipnis is on faculty in Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University.