Note: This was a course assignment for Death and the Maiden
Thousands of years after Eve took that fateful bite of the apple and ninety years after Freud wrote that women are the problem and attributed their emotional makeup to penis envy (Freud, 1965), women are still being still being stereotyped, subject to abjection, and defined based on their relationships to men and children. One of my favorite fictional characters is Lilly Rush, a homicide detective in the TV series Cold Case. Despite airing in the early 2000s, Lilly was still stereotyped based on her gender and subject to abjection. She was called “Homicide Barbie,” (Stiehm & Mundy, 2003) and her male counterparts were asked in multiple episodes if they’d had sex with her. Despite the repeated slights and attempts to reduce her to an object, Rush persevered always remembering that she stood for the victims of homicides.
Freud theorized that little girls and women suffered from penis envy and that this penis envy caused women to hate their mothers when they realized that mothers were the reason that they did not have a penis. Freud also stated that women were the problem and that they were passive (Freud, 1965). However, buried within Freud’s lecture is a truth that deserves future exploration and if he had explored this truth further, Freud could have made a stunningly modern contribution to psychoanalysis. Freud noted that women were forced into passive situations by social customs and the suppression of their aggressiveness by society (Freud, 1965, p. 102).
As a child, I was aware of the physiologically differences between girls and boys, but I was more aware that boys were treated differently than girls. Girls were expected to do dishes, while men could watch TV after dinner. Girls were expected to be nurturing, but boys could be selfish. Girls were expected to be subservient, but boys could be agressive. These were the social customs that I grew up with in the 1970s as I was taught that boys could do anything, but that girls only had limited options available to them due to their gender. This was especially true in the era that Freud wrote this lecture in was evidenced by a woman being found in contempt of court in 1938 for wearing pants to court. The judge in the case said her slacks hindered the administration of justice (HARRISON, 2019).
Freud was seemingly aware that social customs contributed to how women acted and were perceived, but he failed to explore this further. If had explored this further, he may have realized that women were envious of the freedom boys had and not their penises. I know that as a child my only female role models were housewives, nurses, and teachers. I was not exposed to female detectives, lawyers, or made aware that there were other options for women. I turned away from my mother not because I, as Freud posited, held her responsible for my lack of a penis (Freud, 1965, p. 110), but because I did not want to follow in her subservient footsteps. Unfortunately, as a child, I believed my mother was freely choosing to be subservient and did not realize that it was societal customs that had forced her into this role.
The abjection of women has taken place since Eve ate that apple as since that time women have silently or not so silently been blamed for the miseries of humanity. Women have been viewed as the monsters responsible for the downfall of their sons, even though many of the mythical monster women of history result from misinterpretations of sacred myths. For instance, Medusa is portrayed as snake-headed female who turns men to stone (Creed, 1986), but what the common portrayal misses is that Medusa was demonized because she was beautiful and because she was a rape victim. Many scholars believe that her power was taken away from her by the patriarchy (Hastings, 2018). The Indian Goddess Kali has similarly been subject to abjection. A common portrayal of Kali is with a skirt of dismembered arms and a necklace of skulls is fearsome and has led to a recognition of her destructive side, without an understanding of her nurturing and creative side. While the severed arms and heads do signify rage, they also symbolize creativity and freedom from karmic bonds (Kashgar).
Abjection and misogyny reduce women, and by extension, men to one dimensional beings. However, feminism is beginning to dispute the stereotypes of women. They are doing this by exposing the stereotypes and abjection. For instance, Lilly Rush is not a saint or a sinner, but a complex woman who uses the slights thrown her way to her advantage. When men discount her as a Homicide Barbie, she takes advantage of their disdain to gather information and solve crimes. And even Amazon is getting in on the dismantling of abjection through an ad campaigns that portrays Medusa as a witty and fun woman who only uses her power to turn men to stone when necessary (ADdictive, 2022).
Women are reclaiming their power, but it is not something that will happen overnight.
References
ADdictive (Director). (2022). Medusa makes friends [Motion Picture]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/GqQr08UbFtM?rel=0&wmode=transparent
Creed, B. (1986). Horror and the Monsterous Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection. Screen, 67-76.
Freud, S. (1965). Lecture XXXIII Femininity. In S. Freud, & J. Strachey, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (pp. 98-119). New York: WW Norton & Compmany, Inc.
HARRISON, S. (2019, November 15). From the Archives: Wear slacks to court and go to jail. Retrieved from LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-11-15/from-the-archives-wear-slacks-to-court-and-go-to-jail#:~:text=Nov.,jail%20and%20issued%20a%20dress.
Hastings, C. (2018, April 19). The Timeless Myth of Medusa, a Rape Victim Turned Into a Monster. Retrieved from Vice: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvxwax/medusa-greek-myth-rape-victim-turned-into-a-monster
Kashgar. (n.d.). KALI – A MOST MISUNDERSTOOD GODDESS. Retrieved from Kashgar: https://kashgar.com.au/blogs/gods-goddesses/kali-a-most-misunderstood-goddess
Stiehm, M., Mundy, C. (Writers), & Matheson, T. (Director). (2003). Cold Case: The Badlands [Motion Picture].