I know you've been wondering all weekend: who will be this week's Male Feminist? I know your game. Constantly refreshing your web browser in the hopes I might post early, setting up office pools as to who the lucky fellow would be. Well, your long painful wait is over! The newest Male Feminist of the Week is...
This guy:
I know, I know, I know: What??? Freud???
Simmer down now.
So, yes, there was the whole "penis envy" thing, the "masculinity complex," the unfortunate "women who like clitoral stimulation are neurotic" theory. But this is what I've always held: Freud did great things for women. Like all people who are ahead of their time, Freud was still a product of his time--back in his day, even concepts of female anatomywere phallocentric and inaccurate, with diagrams of the uterus and ovaries looking like an inverted penis and testicles [trying to find an image; not doing so well]. My main point has always been this: Freud pioneered the radical idea that maybe someone should start talking to women. Asking them questions! Ascribing value to their thoughts and feelings! Figuring out why they had the troubles that they had*! Most of his patients were women, and he respected their pain. Even more progressively, he convinced the Western world that women had natural sexual desires that were as healthy and vital as men's**.
Freud got a lot wrong about women. Freud, frankly, said a lot crazy shit. But he was inventing a new way of looking at life, and was bound to fuck up a little. And he also admitted that in order for the world to truly understand female sexuality, we would have to wait for the female psychoanalysts. He knew he had shortcomings. And his shortcomings were far outweighed by the attention he paid to a long-ignored gender.
It's hip to hate on Freud, especially in our generation. I think most people who hate on him know little about him. There are certainly things in his oeuvre to roll your eyes at, but he took major steps forward in terms of Western culture's understanding of the female gender. He is my homeboy. I hope he will be yours.
*For heaven's sake, women were running around smelling burnt pudding that wasn't there!
**He also was insistent that homosexuality is innate, incurable, totally healthy and in general peachy keen, which was good for men and women alike. ("It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty too.")
I know, I know, I know: What??? Freud???
Simmer down now.
So, yes, there was the whole "penis envy" thing, the "masculinity complex," the unfortunate "women who like clitoral stimulation are neurotic" theory. But this is what I've always held: Freud did great things for women. Like all people who are ahead of their time, Freud was still a product of his time--back in his day, even concepts of female anatomywere phallocentric and inaccurate, with diagrams of the uterus and ovaries looking like an inverted penis and testicles [trying to find an image; not doing so well]. My main point has always been this: Freud pioneered the radical idea that maybe someone should start talking to women. Asking them questions! Ascribing value to their thoughts and feelings! Figuring out why they had the troubles that they had*! Most of his patients were women, and he respected their pain. Even more progressively, he convinced the Western world that women had natural sexual desires that were as healthy and vital as men's**.
Freud got a lot wrong about women. Freud, frankly, said a lot crazy shit. But he was inventing a new way of looking at life, and was bound to fuck up a little. And he also admitted that in order for the world to truly understand female sexuality, we would have to wait for the female psychoanalysts. He knew he had shortcomings. And his shortcomings were far outweighed by the attention he paid to a long-ignored gender.
It's hip to hate on Freud, especially in our generation. I think most people who hate on him know little about him. There are certainly things in his oeuvre to roll your eyes at, but he took major steps forward in terms of Western culture's understanding of the female gender. He is my homeboy. I hope he will be yours.
*For heaven's sake, women were running around smelling burnt pudding that wasn't there!
**He also was insistent that homosexuality is innate, incurable, totally healthy and in general peachy keen, which was good for men and women alike. ("It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty too.")
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