"Legend of Good Women"

English > Analysis
Gender and Sexuality > Gender Studies
Gender and Sexuality > Theories of Gender

Studies the masochistic bases of female sexuality from a psychoanalytic point of view, as medieval writer Geoffrey Chaucer presents it in his work, "Legend of Good Women".

10,500 words () | 43 sources | APA | 2002 Mauritius

Paper Summary:

The paper looks at the way in which female desire and sexuality as a whole have been presented in the "Legend of Good Women". The paper explores the masochistic bases of female sexuality as a theme in Chaucer's "Legend of Good Women". Further questions arise in relation to the portrayal of female sexuality in Chaucer's work. The dissertation explores Chaucer's stance as presented in his piece, relates it to the (misogynist) medieval culture, and evaluates its reliability through a feminist-psychoanalytic reading of the text.

Paper Outline:
Introduction
Anatomy as Destiny: Acquiescence and/or Resistance
Pre-oedipal Stages of Development
Phallus
Taking up or Rejecting Gender Roles & Identities
'Women Desiren to have Sovereyntee'
Ambiguities in Female Sexuality
Silence, Secrecy & Suffering
When Sex is Synonymous to Danger & Fear
'Sex Trade'
The Weaker Sex?
Conclusion: Orgasmic Deaths - Masochism at its Peak

From the Paper:

"The tension between sexual danger and sexual pleasure is a powerful one in women's lives. Sexuality is simultaneously a domain of restriction, repression, and danger as well as a domain of exploration, pleasure, and agency. To focus only on pleasure and gratification ignores the patriarchal structure in which women act, yet to speak only of sexual violence and oppression ignores women's experience with sexual agency and choice and unwittingly increases the sexual terror and despair in which women live. ... The juxtaposition of pleasure and danger ... [is] an ongoing subject in the lives of individual women who must weigh the pleasures of sexuality against its cost in their daily calculations, choices, and acts.' Entangled in this web of patriarchal constructs, the woman's taking steps towards the reconciliation of the polarities of Desire is not without pain. Not being able to come to terms with the ambivalent nature of her Desire, of Desire in itself, can be even more agonising. In fact, the assertion of female sexual Desire is itself equivalent to standing against patriarchal society and defying its norms; which is not an effortless act. On the other hand, curtailing one's Desire would be to impose restrictions upon oneself, which can often create tensions and anxiety; as Muriel Dimen puts it, 'constraint of desire leads directly to self-betrayal'. Does this suggest that pain and suffering are not inextricable from the woman's experience of negotiating sexuality? Or rather, are these the very elements that lead to fulfilment of female sexual Desire? If this is so, it will not be irrelevant to suggest that female sexuality is extensively based on masochistic tendencies of 'enjoying pain'.