Reading Response
Introduction
The first-wave feminists sought to address the issues of gender differences and equality, especially with regard to universal suffrage. With time, women started seeking empowerment, in effect paving way for the conception of the notion of ‘womanhood.’ The idea of women defending their sex through writing abounds in literature. In particular, literary pursuits have offered women a platform to dissect issues of gender identity along religious, economic, racial, and ideological lines. One of the branches of feminism that has found wide application in the literary discourse on feministic issues is erotic feminism. The premise of the current essay, therefore, is to examine the issue of erotic feminism as examined by such scholars as Audre Lorde in an attempt to gain further insights into what modern feminism entails.
Discussion
For as early as the nineteenth century, feminists have relied on literary discourse as a means of voicing the oppression facing them and their ilk. Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the foremost feminist authors whose works act as a stark reminder of the extent of the psychological and intellectual suppression of women in comparison with men, her book, ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’, revolves around prevailing over the oppression faced by women in her time and the attendant denial of the right to realise their potential in society. Wollstonecraft explores how women are taught early on the importance of looks, and the need to cultivate artificiality and weakness in a bid to come across as pleasing to others. Wollstonecraft’s calls for equal intellectual and educational opportunities for both men and women are in keeping with the idea of equality that the first-wave feminists were campaigning for namely, universal rights and suffrage for women.
However, Audre Lorde brought another perspective toward our understanding of what ‘womanhood’ entails. In ‘Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power’, Lorde describes the erotic as a resource that lies in the female’s spiritual pane and which acts as an unrecognized or unexpressed feeling. For centuries, women have been brought up not to take heed of the erotic power which has been abused, devalued, and vilified, even as they are encouraged to embrace the superficially erotic which symbolizes female inferiority. Lorde views the erotic, frequently confused with eroticism and its associated pornographic connotations, as a source of political and personal power (Lorde 53). Women have had to restrain the erotic as a potential source of information and power, thereby limiting the energy for change available to them. Lorde gives her own account of the ways in which she has found the erotic to work in her capacity as a Black lesbian feminist. First, it gives her power that emanates from sharing deep pursuits with others. Such sharing, be it emotional, intellectual, physical, or psychic, establishes a bond between the sharers, thereby threatening the threat posed by their differences in addition to providing a platform for a better understanding of that which they might not have shared. Secondly, the erotic acts as a fearless and open portrayal of one’s capacity for joy, thereby leading to an erotically satisfying experience.
In 'The Straight Mind', Monique Witting advances the idea of eroticism that Lorde proposed by examining the struggle for freedom from classism and sexism. She endeavours to advance the theory of "lesbian materialism" by viewing women and men as two separate classes as opposed to "essentialist" categories. Wittig notes that "lesbians are not women" (32), an assertion that drew a distinction between sexuality and gender that was evident in earlier lesbian theory. In support of her assertion, Wittig opines that the notion of "woman" is a social construct whose goal is to convey certain images. She argues that transforming economic oppression faced by women does little in the way of altering the idea of sexism as it will still exist even where all individual enjoy equal economic opportunities. Wiggins offers the suggestion that the only solution to this setback is to transform society by transforming our language and thought process. What this means is that "there can no longer be women and men, and that as classes and categories of thought and language, they have to disappear, politically, economically, ideologically." (Robinson 400).
Witting was fiercely opposed to patriarchy over what she saw as a system seeking to control women, as well as who has access to them. Going by this assertion, men, and not just women, have nothing to do with their bodies. Wiggins brilliantly notes that in the event that we describe women as having access to their bodies, this would also necessitate that we define them not as women, but as men. This brain-twister underlines the power inherent in gender, distinguishable from desire, identities, and sexuality.
Conclusion
Eroticism enables women to live life to the fullest and in the process, maximise their potential. Eroticism should be seen as a powerful weapon in enabling women to reduce oppression by first getting to understand the differences that define them, as opposed to fearing these. By sharing our joy with people who are different from us, could be the first step towards understanding oppression, bringing it to an end, and gaining equality.
Works Cited
Lorde, Audre, Uses of the erotic: The erotic as power, Brooklyn, N.Y: Out & Out Books, 1978. Print.
Robinson, Hilary, Feminism Art Theory: An Anthology 1968-2014, 2015, Print.
Wittig, Monique, The Straight Mind and Other Essays. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992. Print. 32.
Wollstonecraft, Mary (1792), A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman.
