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Marquis de Sade
Feb. 19th, 2015 09:39 amIn this excerpt, we get a cross of some feminist perspectives on de Sade and his writings.
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Many feminists have a more critical view. The American critic Andrea Dworkin, for example, denounced Sade’s writing in 1981 as virulently misogynistic. For another perspective, I sought out Ovidie, the filmmaker and feminist writer, who first gained attention a decade ago starring in pornographic films and is still an activist for sexual freedom. “His philosophy is very powerful,” she said when we met in a Paris café. “But he’s no Nietzsche! There was once a time to fight for Sade and against the censorship laws. But that time has passed. We must still be able to criticize him.” Ovidie argued that Sade’s life should not be separated from his writings. “He is seen as a misunderstood author, who suffered in prison for his heroic stand. But he was not jailed at first because of his writings....The ones who defend Sade are all men. Voilà!”
Yet some French intellectual women defend Sade too. “I do not accept a misogynist reading of his writing,” says Sade exhibit curator Laurence des Cars, citing the study of her fellow curator and biographer Annie Le Brun, Sade: A Sudden Abyss. “His novel Juliette is one of Europe’s first pro-women books, where women dominate entirely.” (In it, the vicious heroine perpetrates sexual atrocities on hapless males, from peasants to the pope.) “Even in 120 Days of Sodom, men and women are on the same level.”
-- Tony Perrottet, "Who Was the Marquis de Sade" in Smithsonian Magazine
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I have some sympathy for the last perspective that de Sade was not really about inferior women being dominated and abused by men. Indeed, this is one reason why I am not that big a fan of his writing, since the theme of dominant women is a bit of a turn-off for me, sexually speaking. Sade was a deviant sadist, but he was perhaps too modern to be a virulent sexist. He has men on men, women on women, women on men, as well as men on women. He was fascinated by vicious sex, not sexual chauvinism or misogyny.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Many feminists have a more critical view. The American critic Andrea Dworkin, for example, denounced Sade’s writing in 1981 as virulently misogynistic. For another perspective, I sought out Ovidie, the filmmaker and feminist writer, who first gained attention a decade ago starring in pornographic films and is still an activist for sexual freedom. “His philosophy is very powerful,” she said when we met in a Paris café. “But he’s no Nietzsche! There was once a time to fight for Sade and against the censorship laws. But that time has passed. We must still be able to criticize him.” Ovidie argued that Sade’s life should not be separated from his writings. “He is seen as a misunderstood author, who suffered in prison for his heroic stand. But he was not jailed at first because of his writings....The ones who defend Sade are all men. Voilà!”
Yet some French intellectual women defend Sade too. “I do not accept a misogynist reading of his writing,” says Sade exhibit curator Laurence des Cars, citing the study of her fellow curator and biographer Annie Le Brun, Sade: A Sudden Abyss. “His novel Juliette is one of Europe’s first pro-women books, where women dominate entirely.” (In it, the vicious heroine perpetrates sexual atrocities on hapless males, from peasants to the pope.) “Even in 120 Days of Sodom, men and women are on the same level.”
-- Tony Perrottet, "Who Was the Marquis de Sade" in Smithsonian Magazine
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I have some sympathy for the last perspective that de Sade was not really about inferior women being dominated and abused by men. Indeed, this is one reason why I am not that big a fan of his writing, since the theme of dominant women is a bit of a turn-off for me, sexually speaking. Sade was a deviant sadist, but he was perhaps too modern to be a virulent sexist. He has men on men, women on women, women on men, as well as men on women. He was fascinated by vicious sex, not sexual chauvinism or misogyny.
