Irigary cont'd
Apr 6 2007, 3:48 AM EDT
| Post edited: Apr 6 2007, 3:48 AM EDT
..."virgin" does not describe a presence, but rather the term invokes futurity (the de-virgining; after all, this is what makes the virgin valuable) and is only meaningful in relation to non-virgins. Both the mother and the prostitute do not need the virgin to have had sex. The virgin needs the mother and the prostitute to have had sex in order for it to be "valuable" that she has NOT had sex.
The mother is defined by the presence of a child. But this term is still relatively negative, because of the "incest taboo" the mother-son relationship introduces. It is the way in which a mother is forbidden and cannot be used that bestows her value upon her.
"Prostitute" is the only descriptive term of the three. It is the only term that names what is rather than what is not. A prostitute is a woman who exchanges sex for money. Even if the prostitute, like the mother and the virgin, does not have a right to her own pleasure (p. 187), she is the only woman who enters into an exchange with men. Though the conventional prostitute does not escape dependency on men, she enters into a contract in which she gets something in return for services rendered. The mother gets nothing in return. The virgin gets nothing (and, if/when she does, she can no longer be named "virgin"). I don't buy that the prostitute's body is "only valuable because it has already been used." The female prostitute's body is valuable because she is a physical, material, accessible woman, and any woman who takes money for sex is a prostitute (at least at that moment), there need be no history of usage. The term "prostitute" invokes an act rather than a (mythical) quality. The prostitute exists in the way the virgin does not.
Okay, I think that's enough, I know I didn't really flesh out why i think the prostitute has more in common with both the mother and the virgin than the mother and the virgin have in common with each other--maybe y'all have some thoughts on that.
--sarah
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