Pornography: Men Possessing Women, by: Andrea ... - Feminish

$And, in that case, what is it in this loved body whichhas the vocation of a fetish for me?Roland Barthes, A Lover's DiscourseT he word fetish comes from the Portuguese feitigoy which means“charm ” or “made thing. ” A fetish is a magical, symbolic object. Itsfirst meaning is religious: the magical object is regarded withirrational, extreme, extravagant trust or reverence (to paraphraseMerriam-Webster). In its sexual meaning, the magic of the fetish isin its power to cause and sustain penile erection. In The Outer Fringeof Sexy Maurice N orth offers a neutral definition of fetishism:a preference for a particular part of the body not directlyentering into coitus, an article of clothing or some otherextrasexual object or combination of any of the aforementionedthat is carried to the point where this fetish-object becomesdom inant in the individual’s sex life, or without which sexualsatisfaction is incomplete or impossible. 47Krafft-Ebing, in his definition, reveals a preoccupation with perpetuatingheterosexual intercourse as the norm of sexual behavior:T he concentration of the sexual interest on a certain portion ofthe body that has no direct relation to sex (as have breasts andexternal genitals)— a peculiarity to be emphasized— often leadsbody-fetishists to such a condition that they do not regardcoitus as the real means of sexual gratification, but rather someform of manipulation of that portion of the body that iseffectual as a fetish. 48Fetishism is seen as an inappropriate narrowing of sexual responsiveness;objectification is seen as an appropriate narrowing ofsexual responsiveness. T he two are not really distinct at all; theyreveal a continuum of incapacity. Fetishism too, as part of the malecondition, is dignified as a sign of the human condition: “Fetishism,