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

distinctly pinkish. One of her hands disappears between her legs;the other, emerging from a hidden arm, seems to be fondling herown breast, which is not visible because one sees the profile of thebreast closest to the camera. The most prominent part of her bodyis her buttock, raised, highlighted by the intensity of the light on it.T he rest of her ass, even in profile, is obscured by the head of thesecond woman. The second woman is on her knees beside the sofaarm, her features indistinguishable, her mouth apparently kissingthe first woman’s exposed buttock, but in fact her face is merelyprofiled Against the woman’s raised buttock. The second woman isperpendicular to the reclining woman, so that her ass, fullyexposed, directly faces the camera. She is wearing a cream-coloredrobe which is draped across her back and falls to one side tohighlight her naked ass. Her legs are spread. Pubic hair showsunderneath. She is wearing spiked heels the same color as her hair,dark brown. The light is concentrated on the ass of the woman onher knees.In the photograph, all visual significance is given to the ass of thewoman on her knees, which is in the foreground, exaggerated bythe light markedly on it, and to its echo, the raised buttock of thewoman reclining. The camera is the penile presence, the viewer isthe male who participates in the sexual action, which is not withinthe photograph but in the perception of it. The photograph doesnot document lesbian lovemaking; in fact, it barely resembles it.The symbolic reality of the photograph—which is vivid— is not inthe relationship between the two women, which not only does notprovoke but actually prohibits any recognition of lesbian eroticismas authentic or even existent. The symbolic reality instead isexpressed in the posture of women exposed purposefully to excite amale viewer. The ass is exposed and vulnerable; the camera hastaken it; the viewer can claim it. The spiked heels suggest cruelty,associated with the lesbian, the quintessential castrator. At the sametime, the spiked heels suggest a slavish conformity to male-dictatedfashion, a crippling of the female, binding of the feet, which isunderlined in the long and languid accompanying text by the