Audre Lorde Use Of Patriarchy

Audre Lorde’s, Uses of the Erotic, and Sapphire’s Push, both highlight important concepts surrounding women, race and sexuality. Lorde uses the word erotic and expresses it as a power that women possess. A power which she expresses is related to sex but not bound to it. Lorde emphasizes the importance of connecting with our bodies, our feelings, and those of other women as well. We as women have a power within us which we need to explore. On the other hand, Sapphire introduces us to a young African American woman named Precious who is the victim of physical, sexual, and verbal abuse by both her mother and father. Her inner power has been tainted and introduced to her in a way which confuses her soul. It is because of her abuse that she disconnects
from the women in her life. Her abuse sexualizes her and makes her into a heterosexist norm. Through Sapphire’s novel, we see Precious push through her struggles to find her inner erotic not as a sexual being but as a powerful, interconnected woman. Push promotes a journey of self-discovery and validates the female struggle through Precious’ growth.
Lorde’s Uses of the Erotic heavily defines the ertotic as a woman’s source of power.
“The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling.” (Lorde, pg. 87). Lorde refers to the erotic as a suppressed power which is filled with uncertainty until we as women tap into it. Lorde challenges what we know of eroticism, especially as it is a concept deeply rooted in the patriarchy. She speaks of the misleading correlation of the erotic with pornography, saying, “we have often turned away from the exploration and consideration of the erotic as a source of power and information, confusing it with its opposite, the pornographic. But pornography is a direct denial of the power of the erotic, for it represents the suppression of true feeling. Pornography emphasizes sensation without feeling.” (Lorde, pg. 88). It is misleading when eroticism is defined closely with pornography. In my understanding, they are opposites as described as Lorde. Women are taught this power and knowledge within them is not rational, and therefore it becomes oppressed. This oppression, denies us the true power we hold within us. Eroticism as a power, from Lorde’s essay is having the deepest knowledge of our desires and ourselves, to feel fully all these components to our core. And to not only feel them, but to feel them fully by ourselves- with the help of no
man.
Precious has been sexually abused for as long as she can remember by her own father as her mother does nothing. From the start, the women in her life have let her down and the act of sex has been forced upon her. When Precious returns home from the hospital after her second pregnancy, she recalls her mother saying, “Thank you Miz Claireece Precious Jones for fucking my husband you nasty little slut” (Sapphire, 1996, pg. 19). This behavior from Precious’ mother teaches her multiple things about gender and sexuality. The first being the importance of a male partner. Precious’ mother shows her exactly how much value a male partner has by choosing to side with her father as he does terrible things to her. As well as then blaming Precious for those acts. She puts a man and his heinous crimes above her daughter, showing Precious a flawed value of men. The second thing Precious learns from her mother is the definition of relationships. She has now only seen negative relationships surrounding her. Her father is abusive and her mother makes the situation worse. Precious only sees men as sexual and men and women as heterosexual.
Another role model whom Precious encounters and also shapes her perception regarding race and sexuality is Louis Farrakhan, a Black rights activist. Farrakhan was in a way a race man. An educated man dedicated to the wellness of the African American race. Farrakhan is homophobic activist that Precious looks up to. She adopts his belief that white people are the “cause of everything bad” and finds herself then excusing her father’s abuse by stating, “He has forgot he is the Original Man,” (Sapphire, 1996, pg. 34). This statement is derived from Farrakhan’s belief that the Black man is god, the original man. Precious claims Farrakhan to be “a real man” (Sapphire, 1996, pg. 58). By Precious looking up to Farrakhan, he has taken a role as another male model in her life. One which also encourages a heterosexist norm and is now the only positive (in her eyes) male role model.
Though Precious adopts Farrakhan’s belief that white people are the cause of everything bad, she also looks up and craves to be white. This shows her continuous struggle to understand concepts fully. “My fahver don’t see me really. If he did, he would know, I was like a white girl, a real person, inside.” (Sapphire, 1996, pg. 32). Precious correlates realness to whiteness. A common trend seen in people of color due to the stigma around whiteness holding a racial superiority among the races. Here we see Precious conforming to that very real stigma as she relays her thoughts. It is not until Precious is introduced to literature that she enters a new world, one which is prevalent of positive relationships with women, one where she begins her journey of self discovery. Up until her environment changes, Precious’s focus is primarily on men. Though she was abused by men she still craves to be accepted by them. In her entries she writes, “I hear kids at school. Boy say I’m laffing ugly” (Sapphire, 1996, pg. 12). Though “kids” could include both boys and girls, she never mentions girls, rather, she focuses only the boys’ actions. She also remembers that “Secon’ grade they laffes at HOW I talk so I stop talking. What for? Secon’ that when the ‘I’mma joke’ start. When I go sit down boyz make fart sounds wif they mouf like it’s me fartin.” (Sapphire, 1996 pg. 36). This quote reflects the same pattern as the first by uses the word, “they” which could mean the boys or the girls however she she specifies she only focuses on the boys.
At this stage in the novel and in Precious’s life her attention is laser focused on males. She states, “Woman at Lane Bryant on one-two-five say no reason big girls can’t wear the latest, so I wear it. But boyz still laff me, what could I wear that boyz don’t laff?” (Sapphire, 1996 pg. 37). It is clearly seen the way precious craves to be accepted by men but is constantly verbally and sexually abused. She wants them to see her the same way she sees herself, “Can’t he see I am a girl for flowers and thin straw legs and a place in the picture. . . .Sometimes I pass by store window and somebody fat, dark skin old looking, someone look like my muver, looking back at me.” (Sapphire, 1996, pg. 32). Precious sees herself as someone worth more than what she is being treated like, but she craves reaffirmation of her worth from men. It is not until she takes matters into her own hands, until she educates herself, stands up for herself, and looks up to women. That she finds her power of erotic within and reaffirms her own self worth.
Another example of Precious turning away from a female figure and toward a male figure is in school with her math teacher. At first, Precious shows disrespect and hatred toward Mr. Wicher. She calls him a, “Motherfucker” but later retracts and says she feels bad after she makes a scene in his class (Sapphire, 1996, pg. 4). She says, “I didn’t want to hurt him or embarrass him like that you know” (Sapphire, 1996 pg. 5). Precious could be using her disrespect toward Mr. Wicher as a way to impress the boys in her class, however at the same time she favors him and has begun creating a fictional life for them in her head. Her fantasies about her teacher also solidify her view of a hertosexual norm. Precious’ mother has made her feel like a problem her whole life and has valued her husband over Precious. Because of this, Precious view currently views women in a negative light.
During the birth of her child, Precious told the nurse that she was raped by her father and that child was his. Precious says, “[The nurse] tryin’ to hole me in her arms. I don’t want that. She touch side of my face . . . I try to turn away from her. . .” (Sapphire, 1996 pg. 17). Precious refuses female affection when she could have used it and needed it the most. She also turns away from her counselor at school- Mrs. Lichenstein, who is the main reason Precious was able to attain a GED.
It is not until Precious begins at her alternative school that her focus begins to shift. Miz Rain helps her learn to read and we see a shift in the way Precious views women, to the point where her instinct was, ““hug kiss Miz Rain.” She begins to continuously find solace in reading and writing. Precious starts to read the book The Color Purple. It is during this stage of the novel that we see Precious begin to tap into Lorde’s definition of erotic. Precious begins to identify with the characters in the novel- Celie and Shrug. Both women have experienced abuse and both begin to form relationships with other women. We see Precious begin to use The Color Purple to think through many of the things that happen to her. This is when her self discovery begins.
While she is analyzing and retrospecting with the novel, she says, “ I never be a butch like Celie but it don’t make me happy—make me sad.
Maybe I never find no love, nobody. At least when I look at the girls I see them and when they look they see ME, not what I looks like. But it seems like boyz just see what you looks like. (Sapphire, 1996, pg. 95). We see Precious begin to question gender, sexuality, her worth. All of which were wrongly defined to her at a young age. We see her begin her journey and push through all her struggles in order to feel alive and connected to herself by herself. She beings to use characters introduced to her through literature to work through the situations she has been put through in her life. It is here that we see education shape her perception and we see her tap into her inner power and
worth.
A powerful woman is a dangerous woman. We are consciously taught not to fully tap into our power, and we subconsciously abide by these lessons. Lorde teaches us the erotic is a power that separate from sex. Instead us teaches us, “to feel everything we do as deeply as we were feeling sex.” (Source). Normally, the only time women truly feel their bodies deeply is during sexual relationships. Lorde is straying from that scenario and telling us we should and could be having those same deep feelings of being alive all the time.
We see Precious as she journeys through her self discovery from having no women role models to her strongest relationships being with women. We see her being a victim of rape and her thought process as her view on sexuality and sexual intercouse changes. Because of the abuse from her mother, Precious learns to be untrusting of and fearful from all female relationships. Because of the relationship she has with her father, Precious learns to be heterosexual, as she reluctantly finds pleasure in heterosexual sex. It is through her journey of literacy that she becomes acquainted with the idea of relationships with women. This journey symbolizes what Lorde means when she want’s us to connect with with our inner selves, to fully feel alive at all times and to tap into our own power within. Precious pushes through all that is thrown her way to fully find herself not what she is wrongfully taught at a young age.