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A Rebuttal to Georges Bataille's Feminist Criticisms

Introduction

Georges Bataille has been exposed to feminist criticism with a ferocity rivaled only by

feminists' disdain for de Sade. Eroticism, as well as Bataille's erotica, is frequently regarded as

misogynistic. As a result, it would be appropriate, to begin with, Eroticism. "Theoretically, a

man may be just as much the object of a woman's want as a woman is of a man's desire," Bataille

argues in Eroticism. Let's look at all of the "sexist" statements, sentence by sentence, with as

much nuance as possible. In this passage, Bataille acknowledges that males might also be the

"object" (of transgression?) in a sexual connection. As a result, there is no sexism, and all

feminist attacks of this section fail because of this essential acknowledgment that men and

women have no intrinsic differences in the sexual domain.

Bataille isn't a woman fetishist. "It would be completely incorrect to argue that women

are more beautiful or even more desired than men," he continues. Many feminists would

consider what comes after Bataille's final comments to be sexist and misogynistic, but I disagree.

When Bataille says that "women try to bring about the conjunction that men achieve by pursuing

them" [emphasis mine], it's important to remember that he's working under the assumption that

"women have the power of exciting desire in men," and that he never claims this to be always

true, but usually true (at least, concerning the time he was living and the culture he was living
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in). When Bataille writes that "shame, real or imagined, is a woman's way of accepting the taboo

that transforms her into a human being," there is a risk of radical misinterpretation. All humans,

male, female, other, etc., receive their humanity through taboo, according to Bataille. Humanity

distinguishes itself from animosity by prohibition (taboo). As a result, the taboo that defines

human humanity is not unique to women but rather applies to all people, regardless of sex or

gender.