Outward practices create inner desires rather than express them

Evidence

To many readers this conversation may exemplify an obsequious deference to social norms that both refl and reproduces women’s subordination. In.. deed, Amal’s struggle with herself to become shy may appear to be no more than an instance of the internalization of standards of effeminate behavior, one that contributes little to our understanding of agency. Yet if we think of “agency” not simply as a synonym for resistance to social norms but as a modality of action, then this conversation raises some interesting questions about the kind of relationship established between the subject and the norm, between performative behavior and inward disposition. To begin with, what is striking here is that instead of innate human desires eliciting outward forms of conduct, it is the sequence of practices and actions one is engaged in that de.. termines one’s desires and emotions. In other words, action does not issue forth from natural feelings but creates them. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1068

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Inverts the standard liberal/Enlightenment model where authentic feeling precedes and motivates action; reframes agency entirely away from resistance. A paradigm-shifting idea worth sitting with.
• XREF: Connects to Aristotle’s ethics of habituation, to Butler’s performativity debates in gender theory, and to Bourdieu’s habitus. — connects to: Emotional behaviors do not express inner states; they are the states — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 904; The sexual act is a learned technique added to desire from outside; Social context becomes internalised and shapes desires. — Yael Arbell, The Circle of Commoning:…, 50 (+3 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival…, 1068