COnstruction of Female Sexuality
"The construction of female sexuality and it is position in heterosexualitydrawing upon recent feminist discussions"An area of great focus in contemporary feminist theory has been looking at the construction of female sexuality, particularly itsposition in heterosexuality. Of the recent discussions, much of this has been influenced or at least based around Freud's theoryof psychoanalysis and the his account of sexual development that follows from it. In very simplistic terms his account placesmasculine sexuality at its centre, making the penis the only recognised and valued sexual organ (Smart). Female sexuality isconstructed as lack of or a void because her genitals offer us nothing to see (Irigaray), thereby her desire is framed as an urgeto come to possess the valued organ, which is the penis. Freud's account of sexuality was initially dismissed by Kate Millett in 1969 as she argued his ideas were self-interested and justplain silly, however in 1974, Juliet Mitchell brought Freud back into feminism (Smart). She argued that his references to thepenis shouldn't be taken so literally, in attempt to split the symbolic phallus from the biological penis, the problem however
Equally the struggle forsexual liberation has played a crucial role in changing patterns of life in Western countries regarding safe sex, parenting andcontraception (Segal). The point to consider is that Freud's account of sexuality may have normalized heterosexuality and the positions it offers for itssubjects but it did not necessarily make it natural or inevitable. This is evident in earlyfeminist work such as, Simone de Beavoir, who in The Second Sex documented several women's first experiences ofpenetration which were described as painful, from which she argued that the first penetration is always a violation even whenconsented. On the other hand the homosexual community has a muchgreater view of what constitutes sex including such things as kissing, mutual, masturbation, oral sex which acts tode-emphasising penetration and has give much more room to navigate safe sex. Having established that heterosexuality is capable of change we need to find the aspects that make itproblematic and address ways to solve them. This would stand tochallenge pleasure as purely penetrative, how this would be done is through the media and as previously mentioned an embraceand reform of pornography by feminism which would act to disrupt a view of heterosexual practice as purely penetration. She claims it involves focusing all theerotic potential into the penis by a de-eroticisation of most of the body, this also involves a suppression of what confounds thephallic image. It has been argued that sexual liberation and feminism are very much intertwined, the sexual liberation movement was crucial togay movement allowing them to work together with feminists to counter sexism and heterosexism. Another problematic aspect of penetration is that it maintains itself as the only recognised sexual practice, at least withinmainstream heterosexual culture. If one looks up "penetrate" in the thesaurus it will list the following synonyms: - barge in, force, gore, impale, invade, puncture,trespass, infiltrate. Though changing the word is not going to instigate any change on its own, it will changehow we think about it. With Freud now subsumed into feminism, heterosexuality posed a real problem for women because it represented a submissionto the phallic power of the penis. This can be seen as a denyingwomen sexual autonomy, Lucy Irigaray tries to resolve by proposing the notion of woman's autoerotism, to be understood asthe pleasure she gains from the constant contact of the two lips that constitute her genitals. Now her research was done quite a while ago, in a time when sexual education was limited, however does seempart of the problem with penetration is not so much the act itself but how we described it.
Common topics in this essay:
Dworkin MacKinnon,
Waldby Whilst,
Lucy Irigaray,
Smart Freud,
Fiona Stewart,
Beavoir Sex,
Sharon Marcus,
Oranges Fruit,
Monica Lewinsky,
,
safe sex,
phallic power,
sexual liberation,
sexual practice,
sexual autonomy,
freud's account sexuality,
penetrative sex,
freud's account,
power phallus,
navigate safe,
account sexuality,
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heterosexuality process destruction,
heterosexuality purely penetrative,
simone de beavoir,
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Acceptance Essays
