"The construction of female sexuality and it is position in heterosexuality
drawing upon recent feminist discussions"
An area of great focus in contemporary feminist theory has been looking at the construction of female sexuality, particularly its
position in heterosexuality. Of the recent discussions, much of this has been influenced or at least based around Freud's theory
of psychoanalysis and the his account of sexual development that follows from it. In very simplistic terms his account places
masculine sexuality at its centre, making the penis the only recognised and valued sexual organ (Smart). Female sexuality is
constructed as lack of or a void because her genitals offer us nothing to see (Irigaray), thereby her desire is framed as an urge
to 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 just
plain silly, however in 1974, Juliet Mitchell brought Freud back into feminism (Smart). She argued that his references to the
penis shouldn't be taken so literally, in attempt to split the symbolic phallus from the biological penis, the problem however
remerged because men have both power and penises, so penis continued collapsing in the phallus (Smart).
With Freud now subsumed into feminism, heterosexuality posed a real problem for women because it represented a submission
to the phallic power of the penis. For many women they felt this left them with only two choices: either renounce their
heterosexual desire or remain oppressed by men's phallic power (Jeffreys). Yet for those that renounced heterosexuality their
actions did nothing to challenge man's power within heterosexual relations, they only attempted to put themselves outside the
oppressive force of the male sex drive.
If anything by advocating only two courses of action they seemed to say woman's position in hete...