The Erotic, is a concept of a source of power and resources that are available within all humans, which draw on feminine and spiritual approaches to introspection. The erotic was first conceptualized by Audre Lorde in her 1978 essay in Sister Outsider, "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power".[1] In the essay, Lorde describes the erotic as "the nurturer or nursemaid of our deepest knowledge" and "a lens through which we scrutinize all aspects of our existence".[2] Audre Lorde focuses on the power of the erotic for women, describing how the erotic offers "a well of replenishing and provocative force to the woman who does not fear its revelation, nor succumb to the belief that sensation is enough".[1]

Audre Lorde makes a distinction between the erotic and pornography, stating in the essay that "pornography is a direct denial of the power of the erotic, for it represents the suppression of true feeling. Pornography emphasizes sensation without feeling".[2]

The etymology of the erotic comes from the Greek word eros, which Audre Lorde describes as "the personification of love in all its aspects".[2]

Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) is best known for her work as an, "American poet, essayist, and autobiographer known for her passionate writings on lesbian feminism and racial issues"[3] Her powerful writing included over a dozen publications in the form of poetry and essays, winning multiple national and international awards for her writing, and was one of the primary founders of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.[4] She has also been hailed as, " The Black feminist, lesbian, poet, mother, and warrior."[5] Other famous poems and essays written by Lorde include:[5]

  • A Burst Of Light
  • The Black Unicorn
  • Between Ourselves
  • Cables To Rage
  • The Cancer Journals
  • The First Cities
  • From A Land Where Other People Live
  • I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities
  • Lesbian Party: An Anthology
  • Need: A Chorale For Black Women Voices
  • The New York Head Shop And Museum
  • Our Dead Behind Us: Poems
  • Sister Outsider: Essays And Speeches
  • The Marvelous Arithmetics Of Distance: Poems
  • Undersong: Chosen Poems Old And New
  • Uses Of The Erotic: The Erotic As Power
  • Woman Poet—The East
  • Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

The erotic and pornography

Lorde writes that "The erotic has often been misnamed by men and used against women…[confused] with its opposite, the pornographic…[and] pornography emphasizes sensation without feeling".[2] Lorde relates the erotic to feminine and spiritual creativity, describing it as "the lifeforce of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which [women] are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives…[and exemplify] how acutely and fully we can feel in doing"[1]

According to Young (2012), the term "Erotic" discussed by Audre Lorde has often been misrepresented and used as a tool to over-sexualize and under value women in a patriarchal society. While this term is often synonymous with pornography, it was meant to provide liberation for women, a freedom that can be found from self reflection and human connection with other woman. The primary mechanism of oppression, is found in the misuse and understanding of systemic power structures that continue to oppress women in their voice and expression of self.[6]

Use in critique of modern porn culture

American legal scholar, Catharine MacKinnon, builds upon Lorde's concepts that underscore the pornographic as a form of oppression by emphasizing that pornography not only works to oppress the erotic power of women, but also suppresses women's freedom of speech in her piece "Pornography, Civil Rights, and Speech". Pornography eroticizes "the unspeakable abuse: the rape, the battery, the sexual harassment, the prostitution, and the sexual abuse of children. Only in the pornography it is called something else: sex, sex, sex, sex, and sex, respectively" which thus contributes to the perpetuation of inequality between men and women, promoting a sense of normalization for these atrocities of abuse[7] The erotic power that Lorde describes, a resource that "lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane"[2] becomes twisted, perverted and used against women to maintain female subordination in the pornographic. In her work, MacKinnon draws connections between pornographic depictions of sexual acts and documented cases of sexual assault in which the abusive actions of the male perpetrator demonstrate a direct correlation between the pornographic depictions of sexuality and sexual acts of aggression. In this same work, she quotes a study detailing cases of men who watched pornography depicting acts of sexual assault confessed self-reported to being more inclined of committing aggressive acts of behavior towards women to include the greater likelihood of engaging in acts of sexual assault. These images create a desensitization regarding this particular type of aggressive behavior constructing a reality that silences women and the violence committed against women's bodies. When women report instances of sexual assault or violent sexual behavior, their voices are dismissed, as pornography has distorted the reality of sexual aggression. Pornography becomes another way of silencing women, another way of distorting their experiences. Pornography becomes the snatching away of credibility, sexual violence replaced with a westernized version of 'eroticism'.[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lorde, Audre (1978). "The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power" (PDF). Sagepub. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Lorde, Audre. "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power" (PDF). uk.sagepub. Retrieved 12 Feb 2019.
  3. ↑ "Audre Lorde | Biography, Books, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  4. ↑ Lorde, Audre. "The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power" (PDF). Sage UK.
  5. 1 2 "About Audre Lorde". The Audre Lorde Project. 2007-11-06. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  6. ↑ Young, Nikki (2013). ""Uses of the Erotic" for Teaching Queer Studies". WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly. 40 (3–4): 301–305. doi:10.1353/wsq.2013.0023. ISSN 1934-1520. S2CID 85125779.
  7. 1 2 MacKinnon, Catharine (2018). "Pornography, Civil Rights, and Speech". Readings in Moral Philosophy: 268–278.
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