Alexandra Giroux

In the contemporary society, pornography, prostitution or sex-shops are made essentially for men so one can wonder what the importance of female’s sexuality is. “Patriarchy”, “paternity” or “male supremacy”, several expressions refer to the oppression of the “second sex” described by Beauvoir. The construction of genders shapes the sexuality of the individuals. Historical clichés and natural arguments are brought to justify the privilege of the masculine in the social relations. In the regulation of sexuality, the most visible thing is the regulation of woman’s sexuality. As the male script is built up, women are constructed through the gaze of men. With reference to the increasing phallocentrism of sex, this essay will critically evaluate the extent to which the history of sex has been the history of male pleasure. First, it will be argued that through history, the male pleasure was predominant. Then, different forms of resistance to oppression will be discussed.

During the history, the pleasure of the man and especially his phallus were considered as what matters. Although the 16th and the 17th centuries were a period of relative gender equality, women who used to be associated with the idea of an uncontrollable sexuality became to be more controlled by a powerful patriarchal ideology during the 18th century. While sex was more and more practiced and discussed, women were more and more repressed. Sex became to be more phallocentric and the 18th century was obsessed by the penis. Everything which was not intercourse was considered as foreplay and not real sex. One third of the women were pregnant when they got married. The woman who used to be seen as Eve the temptress became Virgin Mary the mother. During the Victorian age, although men urges were considered as natural, they were controlled by social purity crusades. In the meantime, prostitutes were harassed for many reasons including that they were not working in factories. Foucault (1977: 153) explains that during the 19th century, sex was describes as belonging par excellence to men and in the same time at that which by itself constitutes woman’s body. He explained that “hysteria was interpreted in this strategy as the movement of sex”, principle and lack. An other argument is that at school, no one was talking about the clitoris, except to compare it to a little penis. This organ was probably taboo because its unique function is pleasure. Sex was defined by intercourse because women should have an orgasm through men and not by themselves by stimulating their clitoris. Currently, this idea is still developed through porn movies: although the body of the woman is filmed in wholeness, the body of the men is thus reduced to his penis. The image of the male sexual urge was in opposition with the ideal of the asexual woman.

The pure woman became during the 18th century a womb to be filled: reproduction became more important than sexuality id est the female body became more maternal than sexual. The procreative sex was the good sex. Perry (cited in Faut 1992: 112) states that “’non reproductive’ forms of sexuality were increasingly displaced and devalued in this period”. Motherhood became a commodity for the interest of the state and a new social and sexual identity for women was elaborated. If women can have children, men need to control them and consider them like mothers more than beings who are seeking pleasure. A good woman had to obey to three rules: “love, honor, and obey”… but not “pleasure”. Pearsall (1969: 73) states that “the submissive instincts were rationalised by many as the necessity of sacrificing oneself for the children”. But currently, the body of the woman can be seen as well as infantilized. For instance, in the porn industry, women do not have any hair, any menstruation and have bodies of teenagers. Women seem most of the time to accept this role, because it may be easier to be enslaved. Giddens (1992: 132) suggests that “in so far male power is passed on the compliance of women, and the economic and emotional services which women provide, it is under threat”.

The focus on the male’s pleasure is achieved by the power exercised on the female’s body. This power can have different forms like the medicalisation. Pfeffer (cited in Homans 1985: 5) explains that in medical writings, penis has been positively portrayed and considered as “structurally efficient” and was not as much described in negative term than the vagina. Moreover, in the 18th century, scientists discovered that the active element in reproduction was the male sperm (Phillips and Reay 2002: 190). Thus, women’s orgasm was considered as less important and “the gender distinction became ‘natural’”. During the sensual Victorian period, the medicalisation of the body was growing and medical theories were the reflection of some moral views. The control of pregnancy is for instance the first step to control women’s sexuality and thus women in general. In the 19th century, sexology and psychoanalyse rehabilitated the female orgasm, the clitoris and the possibility of a female sexuality. But it has to be stressed that women came to be “stigmatized as ‘reservoirs’ of infection, reflecting in part the prevailing double standard of sexual morality and in part a deeper and more primitive notion of women as ‘polluter’” during the 20th century (Eder, Hall and Hekma 1999: 66). Prostitutes and libertine women became the point of reference of the cause of venereal diseases (VD) in the propaganda material id est the regulation was operated against women. Prostitutes have almost always been considered as the evil, while the male clients were forgotten. In 1905 Freud (1991: 61), wrote that “the normal sexual aim is regarded as being the union of the genitals in the act known as copulation”, suggesting that others practices are abnormal, even if women can feel more pleasure when practicing them. Moreover, he states that the girl, in her childhood, thinks that she has been castrated and will suffer in the future because she does not have any penis. His conservative theory about the hysterical woman is as well controversial. In a Marxist point of view, it can be said that men having pleasure with submissive women who care more about their children than their own pleasure can be a perfect schema for a capitalist society. Barrett (1981: 188) states that this nuclear family form “has developed because it is particularly well suited to the industrial capitalism’s need for a mobile labour force”. Moreover, before the invention of contraception, the danger for libertine women was to get pregnant, without being able to afford a child because they were not working and thus being dismissed from the society. Now, as Murphy Robinson (1992: 258) reminds to the reader, female circumcision, excision and infibulation are still practice in Africa. Some of these practices can make the “intercourse extremely painful for the woman and often pleasurable for the man”. Nevertheless, this example cannot be the reflection of the whole history of sexuality, even if the male pleasure was usually considered as the more natural to be satisfied.

But it is important to take in consideration that things are changing and even that history of sex is not only history of male pleasure. During the 20th century, while the Church hegemony began to collapse, the idea of pleasure for married women was growing. Social and scientific progress like the Abortion Act (1967), the Divorce Act (1969) or the pill helped the woman to do with their bodies what they wanted to do. Even if pro-life movement or AIDS were, and still are, an obstacle to a total free sexuality, women had their word to say. The texts of Ellis, sexologist in the 20th were a radical step because they stated that men and women were experimenting sexual desire equally. Reich thought that the reform could only be achieved by the sexual liberation (cited in Giddens 1992: 163). He “advocated equality of sexual expression for women” and was concerned as well by the sexuality of children and teenagers. The results of post-feminism are controversial. But like Cockburn (1991: 10) suggests, now, women seek more for equivalence than equality, more for parity than for sameness. Regarding to the work issue, the body question, or the pleasure one, men and women are constructed differently by the society but should have the same rights. The right for pleasure is one really important issue because pleasure bodies are thinking bodies. The history of sexuality seems to operate as a cycle: sometimes the pleasure of the woman seems to be as important as the pleasure of the man and sometimes it is neglected. Laqueur (1990: 43) reminds us that in the Greek mythology, “Tiresias, who had experienced love as both a man and a woman, was blinded by Juno for agreeing with Jupiter that women enjoyed sex more”. The best orgasm capacities of the women are as well recognized in the work of Masters and Johnson (Gagnon and Simon 1974: 18). Women can have multiple orgasms and do not need any resting period. Although the pleasure of the woman is recognised, it is not always the priority of the men.

Sometimes, women resist to this phallocentrism by being more aware of their bodies or even by turning to lesbianism. Different ways to challenge the power of the super phallus exist: women can as well decide to be bisexual, queer or more generally to redefine their gender. During the 18th century, lesbianism was seen as a form of romantic friendship between two women but Satan’s Harvest Home (1749) pointed out that this behaviour was a serious problem and lesbians were condemned. Lesbianism can be seen as an alternative to the phallocentric society. Greer explains that the masculine ideology keeps the woman in a submissive position and that there is a need to change it. Wittig was the first to write a lesbian manifest because she wanted to women to become free. Orgasm between two women is easily reached than between a man and a woman during the penetration. In the 18th century, when general practitioners discovered that the female orgasm was not important for reproduction, it was as well a progress because women who were pregnant because of a rape were not accused to have pleasure during their aggression. Plummerr (cited in Gagnon and Simon 1974: xvi) refers to the sexual revolution of the 1960s. “Second-wave feminism had just appeared, bringing key debates on violence, pornography, the sexuality of women”. Like Betty Dodson, Mort (2000: 115) explains that the problem was that “through centuries of doctrinaire education and repression women had become ignorant of their own sexualities” even if both sexes need the same pleasure and fulfilment. Annie Sprinkle, porn actress, performance artist and pro-sex feminist, in her movies, refuses to be an object and celebrates the female pleasure. Far from the conventional pornography, she acts against the passive female paradigm and thinks that pornography can be used to critic the current relation between the sexes.

If some women, called “liberal feminists” are for equality with the men, some others, the “radical feminists” for difference. Before the contemporary period, several examples attest of the rebellion of some women against the male power: abstinence, pamphlets etc. Some women who want to freed from male control, like Frances Swiney who wrote in the fifties on the natural supremacy of women and on the need for a matriarchal society. Women’s pleasure is more difficult to locate: Irigoray (cited in Conboy, Medina and Standury 1997: 251) suggests that “her sexual organ, which is not one organ, is counted as none”. Judith Butler explains that talking about the penis is not talking about the phallus and that women can use dildos or vibrators without the idea that something is missing. The penis is considered as something penetrating the female’s body to dominate it. The dildo is thus seen as a device which allows the woman not de be dependant of the nature. Preciado suggests that the denomination male and female should be abolished. Choosing a gender would mean choosing a way of life. But it has to be asked if being free to choose a gender means being free to choose a sexuality. Today, some woman see chastity and love as a form of rebellion – avoiding intercourse is seen as a political act – while some pro-sex feminist support the porn industry and act for the women body.

This essay has shown that through history, women, human being without phallus, seen as sexualized and submissive, were during history controlled and locked away. Counterexamples are rare. They were seen like virgins, mothers but their pleasure was forgotten. Victim of their bodies, and seen as unstable, they had to endure the power and its different forms like medicalisation. Of course, things have not always been like that and mentalities are constantly changing. Performers, thinkers, feminists more or less radical want a shift in the society. Because currently, the female body is still suffering: ideal of beauty, eating disorder, clitoridectomy and so on. And the state, because it is not only a male issue, control as well the sexuality of the working class, the homosexuals or the HIV-positive people.

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