Bersani’s brings up the point that psychoanalytically monogamy is “inconceivable except as something that blocks the circuits of desire”. I disagree with this statement due to simple explanation of couples and married couples cheating and having affairs in order to find sexual stimulus from someone other then the person they are committed too. One can argue against this though by saying the reason they cheat in the first place is because they don’t feel love or affection towards the other person anymore and therefore the monogamous relation is put into question. While this may be true, in a lot of cases the person who cheats still cares for their partner and only wishes to explore “desire’s appetites and curiosities”. Love between two partners can exist without having to be exclusive to one another (swingers, men with many spouses, etc).
The notion that Civilization uses “ “every means” to bind the members of the community together in a “libidinal way”” was the most interesting to me. This can be justified through mainstream film in Hollywood, where romantic comedies usually end in happy endings with each couple together with their “perfect” pairing. This is also seen in popular magazines and tabloids (People, Star, etc) that update society about celebrity relationships as well as their personal sex lives. It is interesting to note that there are also “teen tabloid” magazines that seem to encourage young kids to question relationships and love and perhaps have boyfriends and girlfriends at such a young age (since they are clearly influenced by famous teen stars, see picture).
Society in this sense has certainly implanted in our minds (even at a young age) that sexual freedom and choosing to sleep around with different people is considered to be a poor lifestyle. It is a taboo in society that we as humans need to find a partner to love and develop a family with in order to find happiness. To conclude it is interesting to see the rise of sexual freedom and expression that continues to evolve (one example is the fast growing industry of pornography).
Yeah, I agree. What happened to the idea of love? People sometimes get divorced because they lack intimacy, closeness, communication. Most relationships end up splitting up because of lack of communication. Not because of sexual desire...or promiscuity.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to bring in the teen magazine phenomenon. Although I'd point that society doesn't really "implant" anything in our minds, its ideologies form the very "stuff" that our minds/subjectivity are made out of. There is no pure Subject that then gets corrupted by evil society. We are born into a society that constitutes us, right?
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