Startseite Geschichte The Psychomorphology of the Clitoris, or, The Reemergence of the Tribade in English Culture
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The Psychomorphology of the Clitoris, or, The Reemergence of the Tribade in English Culture

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Generation and Degeneration
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The Psychomorphology of the Clitoris, or,The Reemergence of theTribadein English Culturevalerie traubQWe have long realized that in women the development ofsexuality is complicated by the task of renouncing that genital zonewhich was originally the principal one, namely, the clitoris, in favourof a new zone—the vagina.—Sigmund FreudFreud considered the clitoris a problem. From Anne Koedt’s early feministcritique, ‘‘The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm,’’ to Thomas Laqueur’s ‘‘AmorVeneris, Vel Dulcedo Appeletur,’’ many critics have elucidated the strate-gies whereby Freudattempted to reconcile women’s physiology with aheterosexual imperative.1His theory—that in the Oedipal phase the femalechild must renounce clitoral stimulation in favor of vaginal penetration—is widely acknowledged to be an attempt to secure phallic privilege by im-posing a cultural solution on what he deemed a biological problem. Suchpsychosexual adaptation is enabled by Freud’s equation between the cli-toris and the penis, an equivalence that simultaneously is physiological (theclitoris and penis are analogous in structure and function), psychological(both organs indicate an active masculine aim), and metaphorical (duringthe infantile ‘‘phallic’’ stage, ‘‘the little girl is a little man’’).2This essay is a revised version of ‘‘The Psychomorphology of the Clitoris,’’ which appearedinGLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies2, no. 2 (April 1995), 81–113. A more extendedversion will appear in my book,The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England.The epigraph is from Sigmund Freud, ‘‘Female Sexuality’’ (1931), inSexuality and the Psy-chology of Love,ed. Philip Reiff (New York: Macmillan, 1963), pp. 194–211, esp. p. 194.1. Anne Koedt, ‘‘The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm,’’ inRadical Feminism,ed. Anne Koedt,Ellen Levine, and Anita Rapone (New York: Quadrangle, 1973), pp. 198–207; and ThomasLaqueur, ‘‘Amor Veneris, Vel Dulcedo Appeletur,’’ inFragments for a History of the HumanBody,ed. Michael Feher (New York: Zone, 1989), 1:90–131.2. Freud, ‘‘Femininity’’ (1932), inNew Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis,ed. and trans.James Strachey (New York: Norton, 1965), pp. 99–119, esp. p. 104.
© 2020 Duke University Press, Durham, USA

The Psychomorphology of the Clitoris, or,The Reemergence of theTribadein English Culturevalerie traubQWe have long realized that in women the development ofsexuality is complicated by the task of renouncing that genital zonewhich was originally the principal one, namely, the clitoris, in favourof a new zone—the vagina.—Sigmund FreudFreud considered the clitoris a problem. From Anne Koedt’s early feministcritique, ‘‘The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm,’’ to Thomas Laqueur’s ‘‘AmorVeneris, Vel Dulcedo Appeletur,’’ many critics have elucidated the strate-gies whereby Freudattempted to reconcile women’s physiology with aheterosexual imperative.1His theory—that in the Oedipal phase the femalechild must renounce clitoral stimulation in favor of vaginal penetration—is widely acknowledged to be an attempt to secure phallic privilege by im-posing a cultural solution on what he deemed a biological problem. Suchpsychosexual adaptation is enabled by Freud’s equation between the cli-toris and the penis, an equivalence that simultaneously is physiological (theclitoris and penis are analogous in structure and function), psychological(both organs indicate an active masculine aim), and metaphorical (duringthe infantile ‘‘phallic’’ stage, ‘‘the little girl is a little man’’).2This essay is a revised version of ‘‘The Psychomorphology of the Clitoris,’’ which appearedinGLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies2, no. 2 (April 1995), 81–113. A more extendedversion will appear in my book,The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England.The epigraph is from Sigmund Freud, ‘‘Female Sexuality’’ (1931), inSexuality and the Psy-chology of Love,ed. Philip Reiff (New York: Macmillan, 1963), pp. 194–211, esp. p. 194.1. Anne Koedt, ‘‘The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm,’’ inRadical Feminism,ed. Anne Koedt,Ellen Levine, and Anita Rapone (New York: Quadrangle, 1973), pp. 198–207; and ThomasLaqueur, ‘‘Amor Veneris, Vel Dulcedo Appeletur,’’ inFragments for a History of the HumanBody,ed. Michael Feher (New York: Zone, 1989), 1:90–131.2. Freud, ‘‘Femininity’’ (1932), inNew Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis,ed. and trans.James Strachey (New York: Norton, 1965), pp. 99–119, esp. p. 104.
© 2020 Duke University Press, Durham, USA
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