Gonad The Barbarian And The Venus Flytrap : Portraying The Female And Male Orgasm

Anne McClintock’s “Gonad the Barbarian and the Venus Flytrap”, focuses a lot of attention on how from the beginning of history, women have been denied some of the basic rights and freedoms that have been essential to the way that men live. Starting back from the times where they couldn’t vote and when women were basically seen as property when wedded. Women today and even in the earlier days could not express their sexuality and could not show that they were sexual beings. Anne McClintock gives the idea that women should be able to have the things that men have and they should be able to express it in the same way as men. In this essay, I will analyze how Anne McClintock views pornography as a form of pleasure that is mostly consumed by men and how women are incorporated into the employment of the industry and even in the home setting.

While the portrayal of a woman’s sexuality and her sexual tendencies are repeatedly looked down on, it is often the same acts and desires that seem to give them power. Especially when the ones who are doing the desiring and the acting are the men. Such is the case of Phryne the Thespian, mentioned in the book Warriors and Wenches: Sex and Power in Women's History, who was arrested and given the death sentence for her daring exposure during a festival, but was then acquitted of the offense by doing so again in court and accusing the men of blasphemy for destroying her body, gifted to her by the gods (Rosenburg, pg. 54. The aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid afore Though Phryne’s actions can be viewed as shameful, there is still something gratifying about how she uses the mens’ desires against them. While sex and desire can be transactional, encouraged, or manipulated, “The Husband Stitch’s” use of it symbolizes the protagonist’s dominance, autonomy, and agency.

Professor’s Comment: This powerful essay contrasts the views of two feminist, Catherine MacKinnon and Sallie Tisdale, each of which perceives pornography in widely divergent ways. While MacKinnon's 'Not A Moral Issue' explains the adverse impacts of pornography to women and society as a whole, Tisdale's 'Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate Philosophy of Sex' is receptive to pornography despite these adverse impacts, suggesting in fact that the solution to the problems associated with pornography is a greater role of women in production of that pornography.

In contemporary 21st century thought, sexual liberty is at the forefront of the feminist movement. Women are taking their bodily autonomy back, and ascribing a sense of ownership back to themselves. This movement to gain bodily and sexual liberty, however, are not new concepts. Philosophers and literary greats tackled these issues prior to the 21st century. Both Edith Wharton’s novel The Age of Innocence and Kate Chopin’s short story, At the ‘Cadian Ball and which were written prior to the 21st century and its third wave of feminism. portray women’s sexuality throughout their texts. However, in both novels, the sexuality that is portrayed is confined within boundaries that are prescribed by the men in the story. By writing the female sexuality this way, they are exposing the problematic nature of being able to express a woman’s sexuality, and the lack thereof. Through the focalisation of the narrative as well as plot development of the female characters and their lack of freedom and autonomy in other aspects of their life, the authors make their points clear about women and their freedom, sexual and otherwise.

Jessica Valenti’s 2009 novel, The Purity Myth, explains how “America’s obsession with virginity is hurting young women,” by citing and explaining just some of the infinite excuses behind this theory. As a writer, Jessica Valenti has written multiple other books regarding women, double standards, and the essentials of feminism. In other books like “Full Frontal Feminism (2007),” and “Yes Means Yes (2008),” Valenti has a strong reputation to stand up for women and women’s rights. In her newest novel, “Sex Object: a Memoir (2016),” Valenti tells accounts of how male sexuality is not seen as vulgar as women’s.

This binary relationship manifests itself in Levy’s work in another way, as well. Toward the very end of the book Levy claims she has no complaint against women who do gain genuine sexual pleasure from “their vaginas waxed, their breasts enlarged” (Levy, 198). On one hand, Levy recognizes that sexuality is personal and that everyone’s own experiences and preferences are unique. Yet at the same time, by drawing the line between “authentic” and “fake”, she must impersonally interpret these experiences in order to classify them as “problematic”. This desire to judge yet not judge women’s sexual nature represents an underlying tension within the book that threatens to unravel her arguments.

Feminist ideas are used throughout this story in both explicit and implicit ways to help describe the gender roles placed upon females in the 1950s. “That figure was a garish blond showgirl, a Hollywood ‘sexpot’ of no interest to intellectuals”. (Page 79) The author explicitly includes the

Suppressed sexuality and coy, coquettish femininity are nothing new to the world of women. Women are told to be polite, appreciative, and at all costs, protect their ‘womanhood,’ also known as their sexuality. Yet, women for ages have been fighting this oppression and pushing the limits of their physical roles as sexual beings; ancient Greek women used sex toys to illicit pleasure, and Asian women have been doing the same for a thousand years. There have been vast improvements in women’s sex toys, but exposure of them has been continually stifled by the overwhelming tone of patriarchy. By analyzing the vibrator in Wendy Griswold’s cultural diamond I will show how the agents of the vibrator patented women’s

Sexuality has an inherent connection to human nature. Yet, even in regards to something so natural, societies throughout times have imposed expectations and gender roles upon it. Ultimately, these come to oppress women, and confine them within the limits that the world has set for them. However, society is constantly evolving, and within the past 200 years, the role of women has changed. These changes in society can be seen within the intricacies of literature in each era. Specifically, through analyzing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, one can observe the dynamics of society in regards to the role of women through the lens of the theme of sexuality. In both novels, the confinement and oppression of women can be visibly seen as a result of these gender roles. Yet, from the time The Scarlet Letter was published to the time The Bell Jar was written, the place of women in society ultimately changed as well. Hence when evaluating the gender roles that are derived from sexuality, the difference between the portrayals of women’s oppression in each novel becomes apparent, and shows how the subjugation of women has evolved. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent does the theme of sexuality reflect the expectations for women in society at the time each novel was written. The essay will explore how the literary elements that form each novel demonstrate each author’s independent vision which questions the

MacKinnon believes that pornography maintains male-dominated views of sex and is an extension of the patriarchy and thus, from a feminist standpoint, it should be eliminated. First, it should be established that MacKinnon believes that “male dominance is sexual” (315). From that, it can be established that practices such as rape, sexual assault, prostitution, and pornography “express and actualize the

D. (2011). The Second Sex (1st ed., Vol. 11) [Ebook]. Retrieved April 20, 2016. Cecil, W. (2012).

Known as the Two Sex theory, devised by historian Thomas Laqueur, female sexuality would be characterized purely by a woman’s reproductive potential, where the concept of an innate maternal instinct would become the new prioritized ideal. The female orgasm was renounced by a new essence of masculine superiority. This notion can be asserted with the Phallocentric inclination of the late 18th century, examined by historian Tim Hitchcock, as period characterized by penetration and precedence of the phallus. This “both encouraged and made possible the denigration of female sexuality and perceived passivity.” Consequently this caused the de-emphasis of female sexual pleasure and desire. However, female sexual identity would reemerge with potency, attributed to social flux, the emerging field of sexology and disposition of the interwar years.

In her poem “The Golden Age”, Aphra Behn divides nature from civilization, almost in a biblical sense of Eden and after-Eden. Nature and civilization are separated as a positive and negative experience where love is dishonoured, and sin takes over Earth. Through this before and after division, Behn shows how the fall of mankind led to the oppression of the female sex as woman, associated with love, kept the world pure until man, associated with honour, took over. Thus creating “Pleasure, Nature’s worst Disease” (148). When Nature is overpowered by civilization, gender issues arose. This division of gender issues sets women up to be a tease or object of pleasure rather than an equal lover who is free to her own sexuality. “The Golden Age” presents the fall of natural order with the rise of man.

Intercourse, one of Andrea Dworkin’s most revealing novels on sexuality in an exploitive ethos, poetically argues that male hegemony and female inequality are manifested in the somatic action of heterosexual intercourse, a “sexed world of dominance and submission”. This world, simply titled, “Amerika” is, the world that exists within the contemporary American. In “Amerika,” sex is healthy and enjoying it is morally right [59]. It is furthermore, distinctly regarded in the context of vaginal penetration by man. In which women are

“In men, in general, sexual desire is inherent and spontaneous” whereas “in the other sex, the desire is dormant, if not non-existent, till excited” (457). Greg’s terminology is extremely power-laden. “Spontaneous” has the connotation of energy and activity, whereas “dormant” and “victim” imply inactivity. An important concept is the assumption that men, the “coarser sex,” act on women, the “weaker sex” (457).