Masochism, or The Cruel Mother in Maria Beatty's Pornography

Author: Katrien Jacobs

Source: Critical Studies, Bodycheck: Relocating the Body in Contemporary Performing Art. Edited by Maaike Bleeker, Steven De Belder, Kaat Debo, Luk Van den Dries and Kurt Vanhoutte , pp. 13-34(22)

Publisher: Rodopi

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Abstract:

In her essay, Katrien Jacobs ties in with the gender body in order to further develop it in a context which feminism itself finds hard to come to terms with: pornography. This field has always been treated by feminism as the pre-eminent terrain of phallocratic oppression. But where does that leave lesbian porno? Or sadism and masochism, where sexuality and violence explicitly provoke each other? With Deleuze and others, Katrien Jacobs argues that the erotogenic body is not a nostalgic reminiscence of a pre-Oedipal phase, a construction by means of which psychoanalytical theory has colonised sexuality. On the contrary: the body is a 'desiring machine'. In all its unpredictable appearances, the erotogenic desire fragmentises the body, breaks it up and rephrases it 'as an open-ended and performative category'. This infinite multitude of possible shapes of desire is exemplified by means of S&M scenes from Maria Beatty’s film and video.

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2002-08-01

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