Dr Cassie Ogden

» Zygmunt Bauman (2000) ‘Liquid Times’» Modernity split into two phases» 1) Solid Modernity.Institutions, behaviour and choices were

able to keep their shape.There was a strong and obvious tie

between power and politics.Social community and collective action

was apparent.Long-term planning and acting possible.

» 2) Liquid Modernity Structures unable to take shape/form.Short term projects with fleeting results.Globalisation and marketisation of functions

previously organised by the state.Individuals are expected to bear the

consequences of their choices.Division and competition are favoured over

collaboration.

» Postmodernity – product of modernity and is in part defined by its binary opposite.

» It suggests a direction of development.» Liquid Modernity – constant renegotiation is

needed to make sense of worlds.» This fluidity of reality can be utilised to good effect.» To challenge the stability of normalcy and to

interrogate it through exploration of anomalous bodies and experiences.

» Blurred lines between dis/ability.

» Dis/ability can be used therefore to challenge normatively embodied people and encourage them to surrender the notion of a stable, predictable being.

» Monstrous leakiness» Leakiness is so unbearable we transfer our fears to

the ‘other’. Nevertheless in leakiness our fluidity within and between bodies is more obvious.

» The importance is recognising interdependence, uncertainty and instability in all and seeing dis/ability as temporary and fleeting.

» The dis/abled body is the constant in human existence.

» To accept dis/ability the fluid nature of being has to truly be accepted.

» What better place for this to be exposed than in the study of leakiness?

» The uncertainty of Liquid modernity enable more easily the troubling of ideas. This uncertainty is more likely to allow for possibilities for all bodies (Shildrick, 2009).

» Embarrassing stories revolving around leaky bodies.

» ‘Comedy’ making the person with an uncontrollable body the source of humour.

» Putting the tap on to hide the sound of weeing.» Experiencing ‘pee shyness’ when urinating in

front of others in male public toilets.» Being unable to go to the toilet in public places

(Lundblad and Hellstrom, 2005).

» My two year old child singing a song ‘I need a wee, I need a wee, I need a poo too’ and not wanting to let go of her first poo in her potty.

» ‘I did a yellow wee Mum, did you hear it?’» Funny comments in a public toilet.» Festival behaviour and camping life, demonstrating

people’s creativity when facing leaking issues. Some acceptance of this.

» Stories of menstruation.» Resistance to the influx of products which serve to

further deny processes of leakage… » General acknowledgement of leaky realities.

» The best potential for troubling false notions of controlled, organised bodies is through the liquid modern world.

» Our understanding of the body is more complex with the rise of the posthuman.

» If liquid life makes for liquid relationships then the discussion of leakiness will have to occur somewhere outside of closely regarded friends or family.

» Towards a gaseous future where human becomings are never visibly formed but vapourised realities are truly free from negatively formulated discourses.

» References» Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid Modernity. London: Polity

Press.» Bauman, Z. (2007). Liquid Times. London: Polity

Press.» Gatrell, C. (2011). Policy and the Pregnant Body at

Work: Strategies of Secrecy, Silence and Supra-performance. Gender, Work & Organization, 18(2), 158-181. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0432.2009.00485.x

» Grosz, E. (1994) Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Indianapolis. Indian University Press .

» Shildrick, M. (2009). Dangerous Discourses of Disability, Subjectivity and Sexuality. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

» Shildrick, M. (1997). Leaky Bodies and Boundries: Feminism, Leaky Bodies and Boundries: Postmoderism and (Bio)ethics. London: Routledge.