forthcoming: Cathy Lebowitz interviews Josefina Ayerza

on

Catherine Millet's La vie sexuelle de Catherine M.

Josefina: The man enjoys a piece of a woman's body

Cathy: does it go both ways?

J: well with the woman it is a bit different...

C: what does she enjoy?

J: she enjoys the piece

[...]

C: What do you mean Catherine M is all about phallic jouissance. Because the men can't see her head in the car?

J: The case with phallic jouisance is that man does not enjoy the body of the woman, rather he enjoys the jouissance of his organ. And there are phallic women. Another trait with regard to phallic jouissance is the fantasy that consorts with the act.
Thus we may speculate as to the heroine of the book positioned at the back part of a van, men entering the van in turns, "I was crouched as to suck them, or lying folded sideways, trying to best offer my ass to make it easier for them to take it..." While in her thoughts: "I am the immobile idol that without blinking, receives the homage of a series of faithful followers..."
And she explains, "I was who I imagined to be in one of my fantasmes, for example the one I was in a concierge's lodge, solely my ass going past the curtain that covers the bed, offered to a long line of men that stamp their feet and heckle."
Still there's someone else in the game. Before the whole line had "passed," Eric, her husband, who was on the lookout, gets her to leave. He'll explain to her later how the guys got extremely excited and so started a careless behaviour; and how the car was threatening with toppling over."

C: Also I want to ask about the fantasy she mentions. Is there a psychoanalytic interpretation of the woman who imagines a body part (her ass) being offered to many men.

J: Women know men are fond of looking, touching body parts... so it's not unlikely that they expose them, even offer them. The particularity with C.M. is the brink of detachment that the curtain implies - cuts her ass out. And in this, the quality of the organ - outside - masculinizes (makes it the phallus?), it certainly takes in the structure of a fetish.

C: Maybe it is a common fantasy, but many women do not act it out. Also why would she imagine them stamping their feet and heckling. Isn't heckling usually a disrespect. Does she like them being so excited by her offering?

J: She is the goddess. Their over excitement confirms the sacred with regard to her behind - a fetish.

[...]

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