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>
>but again, i think this phrase 'lesbian phallus' infers that men have
>access to it, and women do not, or have access to something else.
>this needs to be unpacked a lot, since there are arguemtns to be made
>here, but that phrase sitting there all as is merely props up the
>inflection that men have the Real Thing. the direct implication
>(and you may not be thinking along these lines, but this is the
>implication, and esp for those guys who may be holding onto it for
>dear life) is that 'lesbians are fake men'.
Well, Butler's phallus is a "transferable phantasm", not something either men or women can actually possess; men and women might have -- for many social reasons-- a different relationship to the desire to "approximate" the phallus, not that men have it and women don't. I mean, no theorist who talks about the phallus thinks its a real penis, it's by definition an ideation. the phrase "Lesbian Phallus" as I understand it isn't meant to imply that lesbians are fake men -- if we are, then men are also fake men -- but that lesbians can also be implicated in this approximation that so obsesses men. And for many societal reasons are made to feel its failure quite differently, though its a failure for men too. I almost think she picks the phrase for its sexy whimsy and metaphoric elegance, not to convey anything particularly unique to lesbians -- the gist of the arguement could describe almost any of the clashes between psychic identity, social role and body that most of us encounter every day. Of course you may be reacting to Yoshie's use of the phrase, not Butler's, in which case none of this is particularly helpful.
Liza