PHIL 336 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Penis Envy, Oedipus Complex, Feminist Theory
Document Summary
Libido: undi erentiated sexual energy directed outward, away from autoerotic and homoerotic stimulation and toward a member of the opposite sex. Girl"s version of oedipal complex: girls have to switch sex from loving mother to father, girl falls victim to penis envy. Dislikes mom for lack of penis: girls then have harder time becoming a normal sexual adult. Girl most achieve orgasm by vagina to be have completed the switch: oedipus scars. Freud on female inferiority: girl does not fear the father, less obedient than men to civilization forces. Feminist critique/ appropriations: dinnerstein and chodorow. Women"s inferiority is traceable to women doing all of the mothering. Men are minotaurs": symbiotic relationship between infant and mother. The mother"s body is unreliable and unpredictable: resist dependence from an all-powerful force. Men seek to control women and nature. Women fear the mother within them: misshapen set of gender arrangements.
