Lines of demarkation
- Feminine/masculine traits
- Spirit/Geist associated with the masculine.
- man is subject, woman object
- man has the power, desires and chooses woman. Woman is the desired
one, the object, no power
- men manipulate women (as objects), defining the woman's role
- dual identity, dual desiring, dual identity assignments
- subject/object role reversal
- hidden roles vs. blatant/surface/societially mandated roles.
- how men define women
- men put women on a pedestal, like a Madonna-figure.
- man desires woman for her goodness
- to obtain woman (in her goodness) man must remove woman from the
pedestal (where he placed her).
- ironic: man wants woman for her purity (which he has imposed on her)
and then desires her, corrupting her.
- man chooses to keep woman pure for himself, then taint them in
accordance with their own timetable. Power trip.
- second irony: women can't help but fail in the role of the pure
Madonna figure, since we're all imperfect.
- androgyny and dual identity
- Frau Eva- woman on a power trip. refuses to be defined. Both male
and female.
- bisexual attraction satisfied in Frau Eva for sinclair. Body of a
women, mind/spirit of a man.
- Object (woman-frau eva) has power (masculine trait). Reverse or dual
identity.
- Maennerlich contra weiblich. Das Androguenisches.
- androgyny in Sinclair's perception of beatrice, Frau Eva.
- attraction/composition/draw of androgyny.
- Male & female. refuses to follow/act according to the social
roles
set for women, and has the (normally masculine) power to chose/make
choices herself.
- Role Reversal
- want to put themselves on a pedestal (as well): like they do to
women, to be an object of desire (women have to want them back, but we
often discount or ignore this part). Womanliness in man, manliness in
women.
- willing to give up the subject position.
- almost masocistic quality-- act of self-denial, denying oneself the
more powerful role of subject to become object.
- Narcissism
- men want to find someone like themselves, which would make them the
most happy. (can this be substantiated in the text?)
- homoerotic, narcissistic tendencies. Finding a mate is like
self-love.
- to be narcissistic: they want to find someone who wants them too-
calls or draws them (like Frau Eva said/explained) because they are worthy
of having.
- homosexuality
- Sinclair worships (figuratively) Demian. But since
homosexuality is taboo, he displaces his love for Demian to Demian's
mother, Frau Eva.
- Sinclair.
- Man wants the male spirit but isn't allowed to desire the male body
(taboo on homosexuality).
- permitted to desire women.
- want women with male attributes (of the psyche) with the female
physique.
- Sinclair sees Frau Eva as a mother figure. If incest is taboo, how
can he justify his love for her?
- Weibliche Qualitaeten. Womanly qualities (in men). subject-object
role reversal/duality.
- Sinclair "called" Frau Eva but Demian came instead.
- Demian is the epitome of the qualities Sinclair desires but is A)
taboo as a man, B) doesn't consciously realize he desires him, C) don't
know if Demian desires him in return (and demian is also a man, in the
subject-role, doing the choosing himself), and D) isn't a woman.
- Sinclair, Young Torless (Musil, Robert (?)). Related?
Specific Characters, Authors...
- Herr von Dorsday
- Frau Evan (Demian)
- Toril Moi
- Ahn Rand
Quotes and References
- It was the difficulty of the conquest that made him want Lillian.
She seemed to be a woman who expected and deserved a pedestal; this made
him want to drag her down to his bed. To drag her down, were the words in
his mind; they gave him a dark pleasure, the sense of a victory worth
winning. -- p152. Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
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