Sex, Gender, Becoming - PULP

Exhibiting the expulsion of transgression 37
a valuable implement against lust. 100 Maimonides a Jewish moralist of
the twelfth century, states: 101
The bodily pain caused to [the penis] is the real purpose of circumcision.
None of the activities necessary for the preservation of the individual is
harmed thereby, nor is procreation rendered impossible, but
concupiscence and lust that goes beyond what is needed are diminished.
Additionally, Maimonides 102 describes that circumcision aims to ‘bring
about a decrease in sexual intercourse and a weakening of the organ
in question’. This contributes to the racist mythology surrounding the
Jewish male within the fin de siécle period, as having a deficiency in
virility, which is attributed to the ritual practice of circumcision and
its ultimate connection with the claim that the Jewish male was
effeminate. 103 As a Jewish homosexual, Cohen exhibits his
circumcised penis as a symbol of the salutary infliction of pain in the
place of pleasure which not only is inflicted by circumcision but also
the regulations that oppress marginalised sexualities. 104
Amelia Jones 105 argues that the principal function of the phallus is to
‘celebrate the primacy of the male subject by symbolising his genital
prowess in public rituals’. Cohen uses this traditional function of the
phallus, to exhibit its anatomical corollary, the penis, to
deconstructive ends. 106 Thus, according to De Waal and Sassen 107
‘[t]he most obvious and fundamental signifier of biological
masculinity, ideologised as the phallus of patriarchal power, is
exposed in its vulnerability’. He further deconstructs masculinity by
embracing sadomasochistic garb that signals the dangerous
marginality of male homosexual subjectivity. In doing so, he
dislocates the signifiers of masculinity, exposing it as a construction.
108 Jones 109 describes the performance artist Chris Burden’s
use of exposing his body to masochistic rituals as raising the question
of how violence operates in relation to masculinity. In relation to
Chris Burden, Cohen’s performance art dismembers the crucial
coherence of masculinity through the contamination of its physical
site, the body, by the use of violent acts.
In Taste (1999) Cohen’s face is covered and de-identified by a latex
mask and he wears a large Styrofoam Star of David on his head which
he, resembling the acts of strippers dispersing their garments, throws
100
S de Waal & R Sassen in Carman (n 7 above) 19.
101 In S de Waal & R Sassen in Carman (n 7 above) 19.
102 S de Waal ‘Cut to the quick: body language’ Mail & Guardian 27 October 2000.
103
NL Kleeblatt ‘The body of Alfred Dreyfus’ in Mirzoeff (n 76 above) 76 84.
104 S de Waal & R Sassen in Carman (n 7 above) 20.
105 A Jones ‘Displaying the phallus: Male artists perform their masculinites’ (1994) 17
Art History 546.
106 Jones (n 105 above) 547.
107 S de Waal & R Sassen in Carman (n 7 above) 13.
108
Jones (n 105 above) 556.
109 Jones (n 105 above) 564.