Audre Lorde (2007) argues the insolvency of the statement that abolition of female eroticism illustrates women’s strength and power, while perfunctory eroticism exposes the acceptable weakness and dependence of a woman in Western society. The fictitious nature of the superficial erotic is reviled by the irrelevant emotions and exaggerates itself in the pornography which creates the illusion of feelings. The author refers to pornography as a phenomenon that focuses on sensual pleasures, but not on emotions. The expansion of Lorde’s claim sets the notion of objectifying a woman and her body. Her tolerable vulnerability and explicit sensuality are comparable to the prevailing perception of a female as a provider of services to a man. The suppression does not facilitate a woman with power; otherwise, it blocks the sources which can be used for liberation.
The dedication to understanding what erotic is for the author and for any woman who wants to empower and emancipate herself from the forced and unrealistic image is in every line of the author’s essay. She draws her ideas from Greek mythology and philosophy and exercises them through her experience of being a woman. John Gagnon (2004) in his work explores the concept of sexuality concerning motives and behavioral patterns which an individual adopts and implies during her life cycle. Referring to Lorde’s work, attitude, stimuli, and expectation of a woman are shaped by the patriarchal society that has a particular vision of a woman, her role, and acceptable behavior. To break the pattern, Lorde proposes practicing eroticism, understanding its life force, ability to share pleasure, emotions, and sensations, and recognition of the body’s capacity to feel free from the enforced standards. The emancipation strength of the erotic is emphasized by its connection with nature: “In touch with the erotic, I become less willing to accept powerlessness, or those other supplied states of being which are not native to me” (Lorde, 2007, p. 90).
To communicate the message, Lorde regularly invokes her experience of becoming aware of the erotic and its liberation and conceptive power. She states that the erotic “when released from its intense and constrained pellet, it flows through and color my life with a kind of energy that heightens and strengthens all my experience” (Lorde, 2007, p. 90). The personal approach of the essay intensifies the value of self-awareness. Gagnon’s exploration of the sexual scripts (2004) in comparison with Lorde’s examination of her thoughts and feelings has more methodological character and aims to understand how the sexual scripts which are formed by the influence of culture, various contexts, and acquired skills affect a person’s erotic motives and behavior. However, Gagnon (2004) applies the practical approach about the necessity of the sexual scripts; he asserts that the sensational experience and feelings “are possible in the relationship between our sexual scripts and our concrete sexual acts” (p. 87).
Lorde’s piece (2007) may highlight the origins of the formative forces of sexual behavior in Gagnon’s (2004) work. The developmental patterns adopted from childhood through family and social experience moderate the behavior. Lorde (2007) refers to her experience or common knowledge: “The aim of each thing which we do is to make our lives and the lives of our children richer and more possible” (p. 88). The Gagnon’s sexual scripts with the application of Lorde’s emancipation power of the erotic can get a more profound insight into relationships between the partners. Another example of the sexuality analysis is Bersani’s (1987) study which explores eroticism as Lorde’s essay does, however, the subjects of their inquiries and the methodological approach are different. Bersani argues about the masculinity and homosexual eroticism which is put on the periphery of the dominant realm of heterosexual sexuality.
While Lorde criticizes pornography for its lack of genuine emotions, Bersani (1987) emphasizes the subordination, hierarchy, and gender roles that make a film natural. Pornography’s social construct of male supremacy and the female submission “eroticizes – and thereby celebrates – the violence of inequality itself, then the legal pornography is legalized violence” (p. 213). Lorde’s (2007) observation of pornography complements the Bersani examination of the hierarchical structure of the genre and its impact on the relationship in society. The female eroticism which opens diverse capabilities of the body is transformed to keep stable the existing social order in male-female dynamics; the male erotic while functioning as liberation power for emotions and body as well is totally tabooed. Lorde’s (2007) and Bersani’s (1987) complementary works reveal the rigid structure of the patriarchal society that cannot accept diversity whether it the female or homosexual struggle for empowerment through the erotic.
Summarizing Lorde’s insightful reflections on the dynamic and creative nature of the erotic, the fact that the existing gender order is limited and requires reformation is obvious. Lorde’s personal experience can be an example of a search for integrity with self and nature.
References
Bersani, Leo. “Is the rectum a grave?.” AIDS: Cultural Analysis / Cultural Activism 43. 10 (1987): 197-222.
Gagnon, John H. “Scripts and the coordination of sexual conduct.” An Interpretation of Desire: Essays in the Study of Sexuality. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1973. 59-87. Print.
Lorde, Audre. “The uses of the erotic: The erotic as power.” The lesbian and gay studies reader. Ed. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale and David Halperin. New York: Routledge, 2007. 339-343. Print.