A potentially controversial suggestion that women fetishize food,
among other things. Hoping to "dismantle certainties about what
constitutes perversity," with the ultimate goal of expanding the
limits of sexual diversity, British academics Gammon (Cultural
Studies and Product Design/Central St. Martin's College of Art and
Design) and Makinen (History of Ideas/Middlesex Univ.) review the
history of fetishism and describe three types: anthropological,
commodity, and sexual. They further posit a fourth type, food
fetishism, most clearly linked with the sexual. The authors propose
stages, or intensities, for all four categories of fetishism, for
which the definitions vary and are theoretically difficult, but
have in common a "process of disavowal...objects in our culture
take on meanings that connect them to, or stand in for, other
meanings and associations." The easiest category to comprehend is
the sexual, when an object (such as a shoe) is used instead of a
person for sexual pleasure. The authors devote a significant amount
of text to ruling out things that are frequently thought of as
fetishes, and other things that could be. Despite the widely
recognized phallocentric bias of Freudian psychoanalytic theory,
they remain at least partially within its framework, even though
Freud believed that fetishes grew out of male castration anxiety
and thus didn't believe that women had fetishes. The authors
maintain that women have always fetishized in a variety of ways,
and they provide a persuasive theoretical argument that women
fetishize food, pointing to the widespread phenomenon of eating
disorders in the Western world. They end with a reading of
fetishism that suggests postmodernism has as much to offer to the
understanding of women and fetishism as does psychoanalytic theory.
Their valiant effort to read women into psychoanalytic theory mixes
in postmodern analyses in an attempt to acknowledge the full range
of female fetishism. Intriguing and almost - but not quite -
persuasive. (Kirkus Reviews)
In recent years, the Freudian construction of a passive, female
sexuality has been severely criticised by feminists. This book
tackles the question of female fetishism and documents women's
engagement in this form of sexuality. Most psychoanalytic theory
excludes the very possibility of the existence of female fetishism.
In the face of the wealth of evidence gathered in this book,
covering a range of fetishistic practices, the authors suggest that
Freudian phallocentrism has prevented analysts from seeing the
evidence before their eyes. "Female Fetishism" provides a
theoretical context for understanding the subject, and also
collects together case material from food and advertising fetishism
to the obsessional behaviour of pop fans - collecting pop
paraphernalia and locks of idols' hair - and women's involvement in
the world of fetish magazines and dress clubs.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
