FEMININITY, REJECTION OF

Rejection of femininity refers to a man's rejection of the feminine elements inherent in his constitutional bisexuality.

The concept first appeared in Freud's article "Analysis Terminable and Interminable" (1937c), where he introduced it in his discussion of the "bedrock" beyond which analytic work cannot continue. It also formed a part of his ongoing argument against the term proposed by Alfred Adler, "masculine protest." This bedrock, which takes the form of penis envy in women, appears in men as a rejection of femininity. Specifically, what the man rejects is a passive position towards another man.

The question of the exact nature of this rejected femininity is taken up again when Freud specifies what it is that the man is defending himself against: "He refuses to subject himself to a father-substitute . . . and consequently he refuses to accept his recovery from the doctor" (1937c, p. 252). The notion of "acceptance" (Annahme ) is related to femininity, but without reference to the phallic organization. It refers to the act by which the vagina, as "cavity," "receives the penis" (1908c, p. 218).

Thus the rejection of femininity might be viewed as the refusal of inner space (as representative of mental space as a whole) to admit a foreign body. Jacqueline Schaeffer (1997) has spoken in this connection of anxiety about a femininity perceived as the "penetration of the ego and the body by a stranger, the agent of an incursion that feeds the constant pressure of the drive."

Monique Schneider

See also: Femininity.

Bibliography

Freud, Sigmund. (1937c). Analysis terminable and interminable. SE, 23: 209-253.

——. (1908c). On the sexual theories of children. SE, 9: 205-226.

Schaeffer, Jacqueline. (1997). Le refus du feminine. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Schneider, Monique. (1992). La part de l'ombre. Approche d'un trauma féminin. Paris: Aubier.