The Marquis De Sade

The Marquis De Sade’s Attitude Towards Women Essay, Research Paper The Marquis de Sade’s Attitude Towards Women The Marquis de Sade was an author in France in the late 1700s. His works were infamous in their time, giving Sade a reputation as an adulterer, a debaucher, and a sodomite. One of the more common misrepresentations concerning Sade was his attitude toward women. His attitude was shown in his way of life and in two of his literary characters, Justine and Julliette. The Marquis de Sade was said to be the first and only philosopher of vice because of his atheistic and sadistic activities. He held the common woman in low regard. He believed that women dressed provocatively because they feared men would take no notice of them if they were naked. He cared little for

forced sex. Rape is not a crime, he explained, and is in fact less than robbery, for you get what is used back after the deed is done (Bloch 108). Opinions about the Marquis de Sade’s attitude towards sexual freedom for women varies from author to author. A prevalent one, the one held by Carter, suggests Sade’s work concerns sexual freedom and the nature of such, significant because of his “refusal to see female sexuality in relation to a reproductive function.” Sade justified his beliefs through graffiti, playing psychologist on vandals: In the stylization of graffiti, the prick is always presented erect, as an alert attitude. It points upward, asserts. The hole is open, as an inert space, as a mouth, waiting to be filled. This iconography could be derived from the

metaphysical sexual differences: man aspires, woman serves no function but existence, waiting. Between her thighs is zero, the symbol of nothingness, that only attains somethingness when male principle fills it with meaning (Carter 4). The Marquis de Sade’s way of thought is probably best symbolized in the missionary position. The missionary position represents the mythic relationship between partners. The woman represents the passive receptiveness, the fertility, and the richness of soil. This relationship mythicizes and elevates intercourse to an unrealistic proportion. In a more realistic view, Sade compares married women with prostitutes, saying that prostitutes were better paid and that they had fewer delusions (Carter 9). Most of Sade’s opinions of women were geared

towards the present, in what they were in his time. He held different opinions, however, for how he envisioned women in the future. Sade suggests that women don’t “fuck in the passive tense and hence automatically fucked up, done over, undone.” Sade declares that he is all for the “right of women to fuck.” It is stated as if the time in which women copulate tyrannously, cruelly, and aggressively will be a necessary step in the development of the general human conscious concerning the nature of copulation. He urges women to copulate as actively as they can, so that, “powered by their hitherto untapped sexual energy they will be able to fuck their way into history, and, in doing so, change it” (Carter 27). Women see themselves in the reflection form Sade’s looking

glass of misanthropy. Critics say that Sade offers male fantasies about women in great variety, along with a number of startling insights. He is said to put pornography in the service of women (Carter 36). The Justine series, consisting of six editions, was one of the most infamous and well known series written by Sade. While the series had several editions, the storyline remained basically the same throughout, though becoming more verbose in each edition. Two characters emerge from the Justine novels: Justine and Juliette, who are sisters orphaned at an early age. These two characters represent the opposite poles of womanhood in Sade’s mind. Justine is the innocent, naive type who gets mistreated throughout her life. Juliette is Sade’s ideal woman, being uninhibited in her