“In order to be utilized, our erotic feelings
must be recognized. The need for sharing deep
feeling is a human need. But within the
European-American tradition, this need is sat-
isfied by certain proscribed erotic comings-
together. These occasions are almost always
characterized by a simultaneous looking away,
a pretense of calling them something else,
whether a religion, a fit, mob violence, or even playing doctor. And this misnaming of the need and the deed give rise to that distortion
which results in pornography and obscenity—
the abuse of feeling. “
On page 91 of Audrey Lorde’s “Uses of the Erotic.” Lorde goes on to explain that in order to truly express our inner creative energy or the “erotic”, we must share it with others. It is natural for humans to share our inner feelings, yet in Western culture, people do this in other ways that are limiting such as religion, violence, and other forms that aren’t authentically expressive while the “erotic” is denounced. This causes the “erotic” to become more paralleled with immorality rather than be accepted as an authentic inner feeling.
In this paragraph, Lorde advocates for the sharing of our “uses of erotic” or the way in which we express ourselves. She gives examples of other ways humans naturally express themselves, but she makes it clear that forms of “a religion, a fit, mob violence, or even playing doctor” are a “pretense”, “misnaming”, and “distortion.” These terms all give the connotation that our current systems in place used to express creativity and inner feeling are misrepresentations. The paragraph ends with Lorde boldly stating that by denouncing the “erotic”, there is a rise in the association of the erotic with obscenity, which is an abuse of the erotic. By using a “– the abuse of feeling, ” Lorde’s point is strongly emphasized.
After rephrasing the paragraph sentence by sentence, I think I have a good understanding of what Lorde is arguing here. I understand that there could be more authentic ways of sharing out inner creativity through the “erotic” rather than through other human experiences. However, I still am not sure how we are supposed to “share” our erotic. I assume it means to express ourselves with others and share our ideas, but I would have liked if Lorde provided more examples of this. Does she want us to share our “erotic” through social media, with friends, with people who we trust, and with people who we don’t trust? I would have preferred more specific perspectives on this.
Hi Grace!
Lorde talks a great deal about naming the “erotic.” It really comes down to recognition of how we have misnamed and construed the true meaning of the “erotic” and perverted the use to “pornography and obscenity.” It is possible the author is telling us that the only way we can reclaim the “erotic” is by recognizing it and “sharing deep feeling.” You pointed out that Lorde does not exactly say how to “share” our “erotic.” I think the author did this on purpose. It is possible that she doesn’t feel that she gets to define what our sharing of the “erotic” looks like. On page 89, she talks about a painter being blinded and being asked to still love her work. If we connect what you’re asking back to this mention on page 89, I think Lorde is trying to express that the act, or the media, or even how we go about sharing doesn’t really matter. What matters is the feeling, the sensation, the authenticity of emotion and human need. I believe it is less about the how for Lorde, and more about the why. I hope this helps with your understanding of the text!