It has been argued that transgressive or subversive expressions which challenge perceived sexual repression or religious taboos are essential for a free and healthy society. Or is, as even Freud believed, a degree of repression essential for the maintenance of any social order? Consider these views and provide examples of such challenges.
The following essay will aim to examine whether transgressive identities and taboos that challenge what is perceived as acceptable, or even in more extreme cases break rules and laws, should exist with a high level of freedom or if in order to maintain social order , hierarchy and avoid chaos such identities should be repressed. In order for the following analysis to take place, it is essential to take a step back and look at what is considered a taboo, the reason behind laws that prevent some and the overall meaning of social order and freedom of identities. Also, for a closer analysis, the essay will focus on identities that have or are challenging social norms and regulations and social structures in which taboos have no place. In order to study repression, social order and transgressive identities this essay will be using one of Yorgos Lanthimos movie’s, “Dogtooth”, by examining societies and environments in which one must follow what is “right” and social order depends on the elimination or exclusion of anything taboo that breaks what is learned. Also using a scene from the second volume of Nymphomaniac by lars von trier , this essay will examine sexual taboos, the nature of sexuality and paraphilias and the idea of being born with fantasies unable to leave out.
The overall analysis will draw theories from , George Bataille writing on sexuality and transgression, Michel foucault’s History of sexuality , writings/ research on the topic of pedophilia and various theories of Freud’s ideas on social order amongst others. The essay hopes to give an insight on the levels of freedom and oppression in order to maintain social order.
Being part of a society and a system means being constantly exposed from the moment of birth to a version of the truth and real and accepting as the only norm in which nothing outside can exist or be right. However the truth and the real can be altered based on perspective and not originally what one thought. Plato’s allegory of the cave is an example of false reality. The prisoners chained in a cave are continuously looking at shadows the guards are creating on the wall. They believe those visions as the truth and reality and when faced with the outside of the cave they are overcome with disbelief since the shadows are the only reality they ever knew. Humanity has created a variety of social and economic systems, based on shared values and beliefs. A settlement on reality that uses these concepts and principles which make up the idea of a society, in an effort to create meaning and maintain order by excluding those or that which can disturb the peace and create chaos by exhibiting a conduct which based on those principles is not normative(Freud, 1930). Thus, a society cannot be all inclusive, there needs to be a hierarchy, rules and for all that to exist binary opposition. There is no good without bad, there is no order without chaos and no inclusion without exclusion. However, Taboos and norms aren’t eternal universal stable truths, they vary and change, depending on which society one is looking at and at what time, which is in various occasions is what creates generation gaps in the perception of norms and reality. Also, various identities are not taboos in all concepts being gay used to be a crime, against the law and all social norms whereas now although still is a sin for religions it has become socially acceptable at a large scale, creating a healthier life in society for those with that identity. So, who decided what is the norm? And is repressing outsider and transgressive identities the way to maintain social order?
The idea of repression, social order and containment of human nature are the key themes in Yorgos Lanthimos movie’s. The movie “Dogtooth”, shows society in the scale of one middle class patriarchal family, in which the parents, mainly the father, isolate their 3 children from anything outside the house, and create for them their own order and reality insight the border and structure of the house perimeter. The house, like society , operates with a hierarchy, the father representing the system/bourgeois as the head and the children as the people, obeying his rules. They are told that unless they lose their dogtooth and use the car to get out, they are not ready to go on the outside world.The audience is also taught that one of the the family’s son has left without his dogtooth falling out. Much like in Plato’s cave allegory, the children of the family are subjected to a false notion of reality, one where they are taught the word “sea” means chair and “motorway” means wind. Sex and anything around it is not talked about, teaching the kids that “pussy” means lamp to avoid further discussion. The family only watches videos of themselves as entertainment. The daughters are repressing the urges and the wife and husband only have what is seen as a dull intercourse only for the purpose of reproduction. When the older son hormones begin to rage and need to be controlled, The order of the peaceful environment is disturbed as the father brings home a security guard from outside to have intercourse with him. Christina , the security guard, offers the daughter items from the outside world, including 2 movies, in exchange for the oral sex the son does not give her. The daughter becomes influenced by the movies, reciting the lines and imitating the characters as this are the first movie she has ever seen and exposure of the real word.She begins to think she is one of the characters. She disturbs the peace of the house but ends up giving the movies to her father who then becomes violent as punishment and goes to confront Christina. He hits her, and wishes that her kids develop the wrong personality as a punishment for what she has done to his family. With Christina no longer at service the father orders the siblings to engage in incest. This is seen as the final straw for the elder daughter becomes manic and violent, knocks her dogtooth out and escapes the house by hiding in her father’s car. The daughter risked her health to escape. By repressing her most primal instincts such as sex, curiosity or even expressing opinion has caused a revolution that sparked her, according to the specific social order, transgressive identity(Marcuse, Kellner and Pierce, n.d.). Although the extreme level of oppression in what the family considered taboo’s seemed to work in creating order at first, it later on fell apart, As Karl Abraham said “The onset of mania occurs when repression is no longer able to resist the assaults of the repressed instincts.” The father, even by employing most of Freud’s causal relations and mechanisms throughout the film, such as dependence, wanting to avoid punishment and guilt, fails to contain social order and provokes the opposite manic behaviour results ((Cordón, 2012)). A runaway son, mentally damaged daughters, one who risks her health and confuses movies with reality and who at the end rebels against the oppression in violent, non conforming ways.
Furthermore, sex still remains one of society’s big taboos. Michel foucault has argued that “repression operated as a sentence to disappear, but also as an injunction to silence, an affirmation of nonexistence, and, by implication, an admission that there was nothing to say about such things, nothing to see, and nothing to know.”(Foucault et al., 1978). Society represses any sexual activity apart from the norm by not acknowledging its existence and avoiding any exposure to them. Sexuality is one of man’s most primal animal instinct yet what separates humans from animals lies on the limitations of one’s sexual activity, not acting purely based on impulse but taking all factors into account (Richardson, 1994) .However , Anil Aggrawal has identified over 500 paraphilias in one of his book(Aggrawal, 2009) , some of which are not only transgressive or taboo, but forbidden. Freud has argued sexuality is one of the threats of social order as it a substantial motivator in human behaviour(Boag, 2012). Thus, it is a part of human nature that needs to be repressed and regulated to maintain social order.
Either by using the idea of sin or laws, humans are guilted into repressing certain sexual behaviours, so while it is one of humanity’s primal animal instincts for humans sex is “linked to their most intimate feelings”(Richardson, 1994) were as to animal it’s a need with usually no further meaning.
In many cases repressing certain sexual taboos and paraphilias comes in order to protect other humans.One of the most common yet sexually repressed and least dealt with ,identities is Pedophilia.A pedophile is an adult who experiences sexual attraction towards children, It’s considered a paraphilia and is usually heavily judged and shamed upon. However, not all pedophiles sexually molest children. In the movie Nymphomaniac by Lars Von trier, the main character encounters a pedophile who she later on takes pity on. As she is telling this story to a christian asexual man, he describes the pedophile as a pig. She then starts explaining that this is not a man who deserves punishment but rather deserves praise.
“Seligman: No matter how much I try, I can’t find anything laudable in pedophilia.
Joe: That’s because you think about the, perhaps 5% who actually hurt children. The remaining 95% never live out their fantasies. Think about their suffering. Sexuality is the strongest force in human beings. To be born with a forbidden sexuality must be agonizing. The pedophile who manages to get through life with the shame of his desire, while never acting on it, deserves a bloody medal.” (Nymphomaniac, 2013)
At that point one can see three humans with taboo sexuality, one who has repressed it himself as not to hurt others, one who has accepted it and become an outcast to society and one who was born without one. All three have become outcasts , forced to live their life in loneliness when although however taboo their sexuality is, the were never a threat to society. In the case of the nymphomaniac, the repression she experienced only caused her to act out more and cause this opposite effect of social order.
Pedophilia is classified as a mental illness yet compared to depression or anxiety little is being done to deal with it and get people the help they need. Because of the level of repression of the taboo not many advocacy or help groups are currently running, leaving the site “Virtuous pedophiles” as the only group of support. If there was less oppression on this matter, and instead more freedom, acknowledgement anf therapy then it is possible the crime number would be reduced(Cox, 2011) .
“Think how many cases of abuse would be avoided if pedophiles who were dedicated to resisting their attractions were treated with sympathy and respect, and were therefore more willing to seek professional help in order to remain law-abiding”(Virped.org, 2012)
Without paraphilias to distinguish what is “wrong” then there wouldn’t be normal sexual activity. Right and wrong cannot exist without the other, thus the whole idea of sexual taboos is one of the pillars in creating “social order” and limiting the oppression on it could result into a healthier society.
Concluding, sexuality is part of the human nature and one of the most primal animal instincts in humans, with more than 500 paraphilias, reasonably, there needs to be some form of repression or control over them, as to protect all humans equally. However, in various cases , oppression is affected by religious or cultural variables that influence the laws and society, thus social order reaches a level of extremes and having the opposite effect that the one intended as seen in Dogtooth. It is unavoidable for humanity to exist without any form of transgressive or subversive expressions especially when it comes to sexual taboos. It could be argued that to regulate the levels of repression, social order can be maintained once society reaches the understanding that, When it comes to freedom one must consider that the limit of their freedom stops when someone else’s begin.
References
Aggrawal, A. (2009). Forensic and medico-legal aspects of sexual crimes and unusual sexual practices. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Boag, S. (2012). Freudian repression, the unconscious, and the dynamics of inhibition. London: Karnac Books.
Cordón, L. (2012). Freud’s world. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood.
Cox, L. (2011). Treating Pedophiles: Therapy Can Work, But It’s a Challenge. [online] LiveScience.com. Available at: http://www.livescience.com/17519-treating-pedophiles-therapy-challenge.html [Accessed 4 Apr. 2016].
Dogtooth. (2009). [DVD] Greece: Yorgos Lanthimos.
Foucault, M., Foucault, M., Foucault, M. and Foucault, M. (1978). The history of sexuality. New York: Pantheon Books.
Freud, S. (1930). Civilization and its discontents. New York: Cape & Smith.
Jenks, C. (2003). Transgression. London: Routledge.
Marcuse, H., Kellner, D. and Pierce, C. (n.d.). Marxism, revolution and utopia.
Nymphomaniac. (2013). [film] Lars Von Trier.
Richardson, M. (1994). Georges Bataille. London: Routledge.
Ryan, C. (2010). Sexual Repression: The Malady That Considers Itself the Remedy. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sex-dawn/201004/sexual-repression-the-malady-considers-itself-the-remedy [Accessed 8 Apr. 2016].
Virped.org. (2012). Virtuous Pedophiles – Welcome. [online] Available at: http://www.virped.org/ [Accessed 17 Apr. 2016].
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