Midterm: Womanliness as a Masquerade

..[A]nalysis has shown that what appears as homosexual or
heterosexual character-traits, or sexual manifestations, is the end-
result of the interplay of conflicts and not necessarily evidence of a
radical or fundamental tendency.

In this passage, Riviere is stating the point that homosexual men may exaggerate their heterosexuality as what she describes as a “defense against their homosexuality.”(25) Basing her arguments off of Ernest Jones paper “The Early Development of Female Sexuality,” Riviere claims that “The difference between homosexual and heterosexual development results from difference in the degree of anxiety.”(25) With this point in mind, Riviere attempts to show that women who desire masculinity put on a facade of womanliness to avoid anxiety and “the retribution feared from men.”

Riviere goes on to describe a woman who was for all intent and purposes a success in both her career life and her family life. She constantly bragged about how she was an excellent wife and lover to her husband, commenting on their sex life and their romantic respect for one another. Her work as an American Propagandist writer required her to speak publicly on several occasions. Riviere describes her need for public approval and reassurance from men in the audience who the woman perceived as “father figures” as both a “direct reassurance of the nature of compliments about her performance” and “indirect reassurance of the nature of sexual attentions from these men.” (26) Judging by her intellectual performance, which is what should have earned her her reassurance and credit, this becomes problematic because she was attempting to gain reassurance on a purely platonic and sexual level with these men through what essentially was flirting. It was later explained that she had revolted against her father literary and political life and had gained a superiority to men and a conscious feeling of rivalry which explains why she would try to woo them in her performance. Why, if she is an accomplished woman who is already in possession of superiority to men, would she cling to these father figures and try her hardest to win their affection and reassurance?

The same problems can come into contact with men and women of homosexual persuasions. When a sexual preference becomes the subject of controversy, its only natural for one to feel some sort of reason to prove oneself in everyday life. These feelings may come in the from of some sort of superiority complex between straight and gay men and women but they all possess a need for reassurance from the opposite party. Whether or not they feel the need to prove themselves or not, both straight and gay men and women desire acceptance from where they did not receive it whether they wanted to or not. An example of this would be the “father figure” concept that Riviere previously discussed or the example of a gay man masturbating in front of a mirror dressed as his sister in order to “disguise himself”(29). In both cases, the facade or masquerade became a way to safely rebel against those you feel oppressed by or those whose affections you can never gain.

It is in this sense where we find apocalyptic natures. A women may have every right to feel empowered and independent but due to previous experiences with the opposite sex, she parades around with this masquerade of womanliness in order to gain reassurance and the same for a homosexual person masquerading as a straight person. Their aspects that make them different must at times call upon the very thing they either oppose or desire in order to enter some sort of comfort zone they may or may not need to enter.