Women's
sexuality has been talked about in stories beginning in the 14th-century. Starting
with fairytales like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the film A
Knight’s Tale. In short, these are stories of heroes, Sir Gawain and
William Thatcher, who “must pass [a] test to prove his masculinity” by saving
the women in the stories, The Lady and Jocelyn, who are also used to tempt
them, much like “Eve tempted Adam” (Lecture 3, Slide 26 & 27). Another
example is the fairytale Snow White, who is the naïve virgin who “buys
the protection of seven little men by cooking, cleaning, sweeping, and being
beautiful for them” (Lecture 4, Slide 7). In the stories of becoming a woman,
it isn’t until she is “coming of age sexually” that she has achieved true
femininity (Lecture 4, Slide 10). This is done through the use of red lipstick
or bleeding from a prick of the finger. The red is used to symbolize the
“maturing of her body into womanhood, and the first menses” (Lecture 4, Slide
10).
As
symbolized in these fairytales, menstruation denotes maturing into womanhood,
but it is also a form of power. In “Where I Come from Is Like This” by Paula
Gunn Allen, she points out the power the women in the Iroquois community had.
She says, “Women are explicitly critical to tribal functions” and “the
grandmothers, the elder women of the clan,” had the power of electing and
recalling representatives to govern their community (Lecture 10, Slide 14 &
39). However, the roles these women held weren’t their only form of power
within the community. Like in Western society, there were taboos around
menstruation within Indian society, which Allen says these “menstrual taboos
were about power” (Allen, 47). She continues to say that “many Indians see it
is that women who are at the peak of their fecundity are believed to possess
power that throws male power totally off kilter” (Allen, 47). Allen says that
within Indian tribes, “the occult power of women, inextricably bound to [their]
hormonal life, is through to be very great; many hold that [they] possess
innately the blood-given power to kill” (Allen, 47).
Fast forward to the mid-1950s where Audre
Lorde, a “Black lesbian feminist,” fought for the sexual rights of blacks,
women, and queers in a society dominated by heterosexual white males. Lorde
believed eroticism was necessary to understand who you are and that it’s a form
of emotional liberation. She states that it’s not just sexual, but it is what
makes us function and we can’t be whole without acknowledging it. She believed
“women must define their own eroticism because it has been co-opted by men and
constructed for their own benefit” (Lecture 7, Slide 59). Similar to Lorde, the women of Greece in the play Lysistrata
thought “The power of the women of Greece resides in their sexuality” and
the women in the film Absurdistan used their sexuality to express their
power (Lecture 8, Slide 16). By recognizing their sexuality and eroticism,
these women have power over men and society to get what they want.
The power of women’s sexuality is
still talked about and advocated for today. In the article “Women
Should Embrace Their Sexual Power” by the Huffington Post, author Krista Thompson says, “Women have the gift of sexual power” (Thompson).
She elaborates by saying that “Entire industries are based on it (beauty,
fashion, porn) or attempts are made to cover it completely (some Muslim and
Jewish ultra-orthodox societies, etc)” (Thompson). When referring to sex,
Thompson remarks that “Men want it bad, women bestow it on the deserving” with
the “only way for a man to have complete control over when and where he has sex
is to pay for it” (Thompson). Going along with Lorde’s advocation for embracing
female eroticism, Thompson says the “joy in the gift of female sexuality is
pursuing your interests in all areas of sexual opportunity” (Thompson).
The discourse of
women’s sexuality within fairytales, plays, films, Indian culture, feminist
rights, and modern writing is that women posses power through their sexuality!
Allen,
P. G. Where I Come from Is Like This.
Bredin, R. (2016). Lectures
3, 4, 7, 8, & 10.
Thompson,
K. (2014, March 24). Women Should Embrace Their Sexual Power. Retrieved from
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/krista-thompson/women-sexuality_b_5013099.html
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