Gender and Race

Freud

Freud's analysis of the incestuous fixation on the mother or sister brings to light the internal struggle for affection and sensual pleasure. I find it interesting that sensuality and affection are opposed in the sense of desire and affection. In a relationship, one cannot find full pleasure in the sensuality provided by a life partner because they cannot fulfill the incestual desire in the exterior world. From what I gained, the sensual desire can never be fulfilled in the conscious world and affection is the love that can be attained. It appears that only in the unconscious can one fulfill the sensual desires of fantasy in order to gain pleasure that is absent. We see it in more recent cases in which Bill Clinton received the affection from Hillary but seeked the sensual desire from mistresses such as Monica Lewinsky. On the other hand, one can look at the portraits that Stieglitz had made of Georgia O'Keefe and realize the great affection he had for her. However, Freud points out that women lack the ability to fulfill sensual pleasure because society forces women not to debase the object as men are allowed to. It is a sexist comment per say but it does go along with the ruling class's ideology of what women supposedly should do or are not supposed to do in terms of the sensual desires in terms of intimate, social relationships. However, to say that men are more capable than women because of never being able to satisfy this sensual pleasure is I think false IMO. On the other hand, because women are oppressed because of not being able to debase the object, I think this would make women stronger in terms of achievements of affection and sensual satisfaction because of acting with stronger morals.

Cixous

The bisexuality of women allows them to be masculine and feminime because of not having to live up to the phallic order. Unfortunately, society forces men to live up to the phallic monosexuality, deterring the male from grasping their unconscious feminity along with the conscious masculinity. However, it appears that men have a choice in bringing their feminity to light by rejecting the phallic order of the exterior world and brining the unconscious feminime to the I. However, the I, as imago, would be in a constant struggle of having to live to the phallic symbol of authority. Whereas the male supresses feminity, women are oppressed by the ideology of masculinity of not being able to have her feminity understood. The feminity of women is expressed only with the unconscious I and is not made visible because of the ruling class's repression. Therefore, it seems the phallic symbol represses not only women but men as well. Feminity needs to be not only apart of the unconscious I but the imago as well.

Mulvey

I found Mulvey's example of the narrative film to be closely tied to Freud's writing in section 5.1. Because the narrative film is empowered by the masculine narrative, the women are debased not only as objects of sensual pleasure but as being on the lower class of the hierarchy because of the patriarchal order. A viewer's repression results in the women's oppression in the masculine-driven narrative films. Because of the hierarchal order of the phallic ideology, the man cannot be a debased object because of the ego libido whereas women are categorized as erotic objects because of the scopophilic instinct.

Mercer

Mapplethorpe's photographs of naked black men have been attacked by the ideology of the White Man as being pornographic. Hence, most of the controversy surrounding Mapplethorpe's finely crafted black and white photograph, of rich silver and abundant tonalities as being pornographic, has not considered the issues of these images as they pertain to race. As Mercer points out, Mapplethorpe represents the White Man's Ideology of looking at a black man as an aesthetic and erotic Other. Instead of the tension caused by the gaze of object and subject of male homosexuality, Mapplethorpe's premeditated subjection of the black man represent the white gay male's fantasy of the eroticness and aesthetic of the black man. By Mapplethorpe subjecting his own desires of sexuality, he represses the black man into a fetishized object which represents the death of the black man as subject. I really enjoyed Christian Metz's statement associating photography, silence, and death results in the person who has been photographed as being dead (181). While many have thought that Mapplethorpe's images of naked black men are considered Other in terms of homosexuality, Mercer makes an eloquent argument that the Otherness of the naked black men is simultaneously being subjected as well.

Butler

In Foucault fashion, Butler points out that the juridicial system of power produces a feminism that does not have a defnitive identity. Because of society's subjection of the I (imago) of feminism, the patriarchal order has consciously avoided the representation of feminism. Unfortunately, society fails to bring to light the universality of feminism and so feminism's history is based upon the patriarchal order that subject's its identity.

I will not be attending class this tuesday so I will see everyone next week. So, I am now clear that I am masculine and feminime so screw the phallic order. I am a FEMINIST!!!!