Jacqueline Valore September 21, 2011 Professor Davidson Gender and I.D.

in Visual Arts

Response Paper

Sigmund Freud: Freud on Women

Sigmund Freud is a widely known psychologist, his views of women were vastly rooted in a society where women faced great prejudices about the capacities of woman. And more often than not, Freud was both very curious and very baffled by womans sexuality. Setting aside his nearly blatant egoism of Freud aside I did however understand, (after reading a few biographies), why he wrote this way. A reader sees in the first page of Freuds excerpt of Freud on Women, a Reader, he speaks of an Oedipus complex, which is a theory in psychoanalysis, which is a subconscious sexual desire in a child, especially a male child, for the parent of the opposite sex, usually accompanied by hostility to the parent of the same sex. While noting that we as people, often assume that everything that is active and strong is male, while everything that is weak and passive is female. (p. 364) His views often stir controversy that reaches thoroughly past his lifetime and into our own. He describes women being greatly inferior to men, considering them to be instruments throughout his writing. This excerpt helped myself better understand why one would think of a woman as an object and not as a subject. His writing about the sexuality of women seemed rather stand-offish and at times cold to me. The way he wrote about women, more or so, revealed how we view them, throughout our class,

as objects, nothing more and nothing less. He also reveals that through the developmental part of our childhoods that we are nearly, and almost, programmed this way. And although he admits to not knowing all there is to know about woman, he is quoted: "That is all I have to say to you about femininity. It is certainly incomplete and fragmentary and does not always sound friendly... If you want to know more about femininity, enquire of your own experiences of life, or turn to poets, or wait until science can give you deeper and more coherent information" (p. 362).

Jacques Lacan: What is a Picture?

Lacan was born in April 13, 1901, He was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy. He is often referred as being one of the most controversial men since Freud. But he is often quoted for criticizing Freud. He says that the worship that Freud receives does not mean that Freuds idea that of an image will be able to represent a perfect picture. In his writing, What is a Picture? He is explaining that an image may not be all that it seems, but is also nothing more than what it is. It is a simple picture or image. He explains that an image is symbolically and merely a different type of language. And that it is this theory that we all have in common, we all see with the same eyes and see the same image, but its symbol could have a different meaning to each and every one of us, but nevertheless it is nothing more than an image. Strangely this seems very simple, and I think it seems as if Lacan is over-simplifying. And although his theory seems rather opposing to that of Freads he also relates to Freud when he mentions, that he saw, a little child seeing his brother at his mothers breast, looking at him with a bitter look, which seems to tear him to pieces and has on himself the effect of posion,

What is a picture? (p.116) Does this not relate, hand-in-hand, to Freuds comparison of a woman to an object? Lacan reveals that the child was looking upon his mother with distaste because his sibling was suckling his mothers breast. The child looked upon his mother as if she were his, an object to hold and keep for his own.

Jacqueline Rose: Sexuality and the Field of Vision

Jacqueline Rose is a British academic who is currently a Professor of English at Queen Mary, University of London. She is widely known for tying psychoanalysis, feminism and literature together. She often argues for the difference of sexual concepts and questions the idea of feminine sexuality, observing its representation throughout our culture. In, Sexuality in the Field of Vision, Rose criticizes both Lacans and Freuds concepts on a womans sexuality and how they connect a womans sexuality with a visual representation. Freud argues, active and strong is male, while everything that is weak and passive is female, Freud on Women (p. 364). But Rose argues that this is not always true, or more so, does not have to be true. She also argues that woman does not always have to be beautiful or delicate. She claims that artists can work with a visual image that provides a way to not always perceive the world around us in a manner of how we were brought up. She is trying to break the mold of how we view womens sexuality and how their sexuality is not always such a concept of being meek and feeble, but instead strong-willed.