Waldo's Beautiful Things: Possession and Possessing in Otto Preminger's Laura

Despite its highly subjectivised title, Laura – Otto Preminger's dazzling 1944 noir classic – is, according to this article, a film not so much about persons as things. And what spectacularly beautiful things Laura proffers: exquisite objets d'art, chic fashion, striking design. All of which points to a certain psychic condition that underpins Laura: namely, fetishism. Of course, the fetish nonpareil in the film is Laura herself; she is the not so ‘obscure object of desire’ for all and sundry, possessing everyone in the film, and, in turn, being treated by those possessed, as a possession herself. Though the nature of these sorts of possessory regimes differs dramatically, being contingent upon the psychic profile of the possessor: love interest Shelby Carpenter, police detective Mark McPherson and wealthy mentor, Waldo Lydecker. This article will explore Laura's competing possessory regimes, utilising psychoanalytic concepts such as hysteria, repetition compulsion and the death drive, as well as fetishism and sado-masochism to unpack this vivid filmic representation of the ‘Law of Desire’ as a desire for what is, here, law's objet petit a – feminine sexuality itself.

WOMAN SEXUALITYMOROCCANS WOMAN KNOWLEDGE

The sexuality has an important impact on the mental health, the social functioning and the quality of life of the woman. A good knowledge of its own body and the importance of the preliminary allow an awareness of erogenous zones, and to know all the resources which lead to the pleasure, to reach a satisfaction of the emotional, psychological and physical needs Objectives: estimate the theoretical knowledge concerning the feminine sexuality in a population of Moroccan women, to emphasize their perception and their knowledge in this domain. Methodology: a investigation with 100 women of 20 and more years old, all socioeconomic and educational levels. Use of anheteroquestionnary containing items relative to the anatomy of the body of the woman, to the preliminary, to the attitude of the woman during the sexual intercourse, and to the feminine orgasm Results: in Morocco, country of Arab culture -berbero-Muslim- the sexuality is submitted toCultural, ethical, psychological and social, biological factor. In our study 88% of the women considered that the knowledge of the feminine genital anatomy is essential for the sexual self-fulfillment. Erogenous zones could be not genital parts of the body for 82%. In our study 48% of women know the role of the clitoris in the sexual pleasure, 20% have already heard about the G point, and only 8% were able to know how to placeit.Concerning the erogenous character of the G-spot, meadows of 87% of our investigated ignore this role. 46% think that the woman must be active during the sexual intercourse. In our study only 7% declared to know that there are 2 types of orgasms at the woman clitoral and vaginal. Conclusion: it is very clear that the taboo remains heavy, the lack of information, and a sex education focusing on the hashouma (mixture of shame and prohibition), however, the majority of the investigated are for a sex education while respecting the cultural and religious values of our country.

The Lives of Women in Plutarch’s Lives

Plutarch’s works often serve as a starting point for feminist criticism – the writer is called both a feminist who surpassed his times and a spokesperson for the traditional patriarchal society who sees women as passive and inferior to men. Others are certain that Plutarch hates women and atributes all possible character flaws to them. According to some, Plutarch despises educated women, yet others, contrarily, state that he enjoyed the company of educated women no less than that of educated men. Such a vast range of different expert opinions may be due to Plutarch’s vast literary legacy as well as the peculiarity of his way of thinking and his “generic sensibility”: the tendency to change his approach in consideration of different generic demands. Nevertheless, it is impossible to disagree that Plutarch did write the lives of men, and not of women. However, in the remaining Lives of famous Greeks and Romans, we meet plenty of women whose acts and moral principles may serve as examples not only for women, but also for men. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that Plutarch, despite of sometimes relying on stereotypes, regards women according to the same ethical principles as he applies to men. Plutarch depicts women not as passive and submissive, but as autonomous and mature characters who are active not only in their private world, but in the political world too. They overstep the traditional social boundaries of the stereotype “feminine matrix.” He accentuates two of women’s social roles that, according to his judgement, are of the greatest importance: motherhood and partnership. In Plutarch’s narrative, women are associated with love – the selfless motherly love, or marital love based on the community of thoughts and feelings. Plutarch draws attention not to the physical beauty of women, which is traditionally related to feminine sexuality in masculine psychology, but to the integrity of their characters. Love between a husband and wife, based not only on eros, but on devotion and friendship, is the primary representation of erotic love in his Lives.

A body without a head

Along with the recent development of various theories of the body, Lacan’s body theory aligns with postmodern thinkers such as Michael Foucault and Maurice Merlot-Ponti, who consider body social not biological. Lacan emphasizes the body of the Real, the passive condition of the body in terms of formation, identity, and understanding. Then, this condition of body shapes further in the condition of bodies of women and laborers under patriarchy and capitalism, respectively. Lacan’s ‘not all’ position, which comes from the logical square, allows women to question patriarchy’s system and alternatives of sexual identities. Lacan’s approach to feminine sexuality can be applied to women’s spirituality, emphasizing multiple narratives of body and sexual identities, including gender roles. In the social discernment and analysis in the liberation theology, we can employ the capitalist discourse, which provides a tool to understand how people are manipulated by late capitalist society, not knowing it. Lacan’s theory of ‘a body without a head’ reflects the current condition of the human body, which manifests lack, yet including some possibilities for transforming society.

Nova Sapho — Um novo olhar sob(re) a paisagem literária portuguesa

It’s our main goal to bring Nova Sapho of Visconde de Vila-Moura to the surface of the Portuguese literary landscape. Situated in the twentieth century, three years before the orphic modernist movement, this novel does not integrate the Portuguese’s literary canon. In Aníbal Fernandes’ words this is «the only and main example of the decadent movement in portuguese prose» (my translation) which explores feminine sexuality as marginal to the social and cultural context. Understanding decadent features within this work is our main goal and it will provide an introductory stance to the novel, being Anna M. Klobucka’s and Óscar Lopes’ studies the only investigation found about it.

The Eloquent Blood

The study analyzes constructions of femininity and feminine sexuality in interpretations of the goddess Babalon, a central deity in the British occultist Aleister Crowley’s (1875–1947) religion Thelema. Babalon is based on Crowley’s positive reinterpretation of the biblical Whore of Babylon and symbolizes liberated female sexuality and the spiritual modality of passionate union with existence. Analyzing historical and contemporary written sources, qualitative interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork in the Anglo-American esoteric milieu, the study traces interpretations of Babalon from the works of Crowley and some of his key disciples—including the rocket scientist John Whiteside “Jack” Parsons and the enigmatic British occultist Kenneth Grant—from the fin-de-siècle to the present. From the 1990s onward, female and LGBTQ esotericists have challenged historical interpretations of Babalon, drawing on feminist and queer thought and conceptualizing femininity in new ways. Femininity has held a problematic position in feminist theory, often being associated with lack, artifice, and restriction. However, the present study—which assumes that femininities are neither exclusively heterosexual nor limited to women—indicates how interpretations of Babalon have both built on and challenged dominant gender logics. As the first academic monograph to analyze Crowley’s and his followers’ ideas from the perspective of gender, this book contributes to the underexplored study of gender in Western esotericism. By analyzing the development of a misogynistic biblical symbol into an image of feminine sexual freedom, the study also sheds light on interactions between Western esotericism and broader cultural and sociopolitical trends.

Inhabiting the Uninhibited

This chapter analyzes how feminine sexuality is articulated in the contemporary Babalon discourse. The idea that female sexuality has been repressed, and that women are in need of sexual liberation, is a recurring trope in the source material. Babalon is frequently conceptualized as a sexually liberated woman. She is also associated with sexual modalities outside of the sexual norm (e.g., sex work, BDSM, and nonmonogamy). My interviewees critique expectations of female sexual availability resulting from notions of Babalon as a “sex goddess,” and they emphasize the right to decline unwanted sexual advances. I argue that understandings of feminine sexuality in the contemporary Babalon discourse show influence from (sex positive) feminism and broader discourses on sacred sexuality, with concepts of “sacred whoredom” recurring. I also contend that notions of universally repressed female sexuality, prevalent in the Babalon discourse, obscure racialized and classed inequalities between groups of women and femininities.

Yielding Peaches and Women with Whips

This chapter analyzes how Aleister Crowley’s ideas about Babalon and the Scarlet Woman—a title Crowley bestowed upon his most important female lovers and magical partners, designating them earthly representatives of Babalon—developed after 1909, when Crowley increasingly systematized his magical teachings. In 1912, Crowley became British head of Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), an initiatory fraternity claiming to possess the secret of sexual magic, which subsequently became increasingly important to his magical practice. In 1920, Crowley cofounded a religious commune, the Abbey of Thelema, in Cefalù, Sicily, with his lover and disciple Leah Hirsig, who became Crowley’s Scarlet Woman. Later in life, Crowley developed Babalon’s function further in a number of texts. I argue that Crowley’s Babalon—by symbolizing assertive and transgressive feminine sexuality and the erotic threat to stable, bounded subjectivity—both reifies and challenges dominant perceptions of femininity and feminine sexuality in the early twentieth century.