Cressida Heyes
Dr.
University of Alberta
Sleep Mode: Feminist Philosophy and Work
This paper argues that a contemporary version of the work ethic--workism--is symptomatically represented through discourses about sleep. Workism treats work as central to human identity and purpose, assuming that more work implies a better life. Sleep obviously stands in the way of work, and a sleep-negative discourse resists it. I provide an example of sleep-negativity, before arguing that sleep-positivity is a "reverse discourse" that assumes the same basic subject. This subject, I argue, is an elite man worthy of human and technological support for his effective sleep. Sleep-negative and positive discourses divide sleepers into elites and workers, worthy of technological enablement versus existing to be used, where these schisms are also raced and gendered. Challenging workism might mean a deeper rethinking of sleep—as a challenge to liberal individualism, a range of states that inspire thought and creation, or a portal to dreaming. The subjects inspired by these provocations would not be drawn by workism, and might instead enjoy a slower, but more generative existence.