References To Women's Pleasure In Walt Whitman By Walt Whitman

“In men, in general, sexual desire is inherent and spontaneous” whereas “in the other sex, the desire is dormant, if not non-existent, till excited” (457). Greg’s terminology is extremely power-laden. “Spontaneous” has the connotation of energy and activity, whereas “dormant” and “victim” imply inactivity. An important concept is the assumption that men, the “coarser sex,” act on women, the “weaker sex” (457).

Sexuality is defined as one’s sexual character which possesses the structural and functional traits of sex. In the Renaissance, this definition was accompanied with ideologies of gender. This incorporated knowledge led to their notions of the female being inferior to the male based on what was

As a forerunner to the free-love movement, late eighteenth century poet, engraver, and artist, William Blake (1757-1827), has clear sexual overtones in many of his poems, and he layers his work with sexual double entendres and symbolism. Within the discussion of sexuality in his work Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Blake seems to take a complicated view of women. His speakers use constructs of contraries, specifically innocence/ experience and male/female. Of the latter sex, he experiments with the passive (dependent, docile, virtuous) and active (independent, evil, a threat to the masculine) female subjects. Blake’s use of personification specifically of nature and botany suggest the use of nature to discuss human society. In Songs

"WHITMAN WAS MORE MAN THAN YOU'LL EVER BE," said a student of Louisiana State University. When asked questions of your sexual preference or thoughts on the issue of sex, I would venture to say it makes most people uncomfortable. This is an age-old topic that people know about, yet do not want to talk about. He was particularly reticent about his issues regarding sex and his particular sexual preference. In fact, of Whitman's struggles the most difficult for him to deal with was his ever so strong homosexual desires (Hubbell 283). Whether homosexuality is right or wrong is not for me to decide. Though I feel it should not be used so explicitly in works of

Beginning with the theme of sexual exploration, we look to Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. The story of Edna Pontellier is less about societal acceptance, since New Orleans inhibits Edna’s desires far less than other parts of American society could have, and more about experimentation and sexual awakening. Both of these factors leads to Edna eventually reclaiming her own sexuality. In the beginning of the story, Edna simply seems content in her marriage to her husband, Léonce. It is as if she is either unaware of her sexual desires, or that they have

Rubin’s theory on sexuality completely transformed the way feminists in that period thought about the intersection of gender and sexuality. By declaring the necessity that sex must be its own category with its own theory, Rubin would forever change the face of sexual theory. They start out by examining the consequences of Victorian morality on

The excerpt from Leslie Bell’s “Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom” explains the reality of how the expectation of sexual exploration for women in their twenties plays a reverse role on their behaviors and actually limits them. Bell thus groups female attitudes and behaviors in regards to their interaction with sexuality and relationships. She categorizes women into one of three: the sexual woman, the relational woman, and the desiring woman. Although this could result in a possible loss of individualism by grouping women and their experiences into three groups, and Bell acknowledges this, but insists that it provides an opportunity to study how women can share the same behaviors in a sexually confusing era.

Sexuality is a particularly perplexing topic for young women. Bell notes that “Their (women’s) twenties ought to be a decade of freedom and exploration. But… I have found them to be more confused than ever about not only how to get what they want, but what they want.” (Bell 26) Yes, they are young and has so many opportunities in front of them. Yes, most of them have a college degree and are highly educated. Yes, there are too many choices and they are condemned whichever way they choose.

Clifton also wrote Adam Thinking and I believe Whitman as one of the greats poet would agree with this poem because his faithfulness of humans and as believer of Adam and Eve. Especially this poem is talking about Adam himself asking for partner in life saying that “to reconnect the rib and clay and to be whole again” (Clifton) we see Adam asking god to make out of his rib an other human to fulfill his sexual desire. We also sense the lost of direction because Adam has not named yet by god. Going back to Whitman automatically after reading this poem by the title I remembered Children of Adam by Whitman. Particularly in A Woman Waits For Me in Leaves of Grass shows us the sexual desire of man by saying “A WOMAN waiting for me, she contains all, nothing yet all were lacking if sex were lacking, or if the moisture of the right man were lacking ” (Whitman, 258) this poem is talking about the important of sex and that without female and male in this earth life would not last forever. Therefore, Whitman promotes “sex” because it to help us as human kind not only to be partner, but also to have children to carry on your last name. Overall, to live happily and joyfully in this earth with another human, basically to complete one

Known as the Two Sex theory, devised by historian Thomas Laqueur, female sexuality would be characterized purely by a woman’s reproductive potential, where the concept of an innate maternal instinct would become the new prioritized ideal. The female orgasm was renounced by a new essence of masculine superiority. This notion can be asserted with the Phallocentric inclination of the late 18th century, examined by historian Tim Hitchcock, as period characterized by penetration and precedence of the phallus. This “both encouraged and made possible the denigration of female sexuality and perceived passivity.” Consequently this caused the de-emphasis of female sexual pleasure and desire. However, female sexual identity would reemerge with potency, attributed to social flux, the emerging field of sexology and disposition of the interwar years.

Walt Whitman is considered one of the most important writers in the history of American Literature. The people of his own time called him a radical, a madman, and a pornographer. These days he is greatly appreciated and entitled as a fearless prophet of a new stage of human development. Sometimes Whitman would be in a slump and he felt that he needed to deflect the people who inquired too directly. This even meant using examples of homosexual elements in his work, as well as unbelievable stories of him having affairs with numerous women and fathering many children, unknown to him. Throughout these sorts of times W. Whitman has gone through both resentment and flattery, nevertheless showing us

The first of Whitman’s slightly problematic comments on women comes in the next section of Song of Myself, section eight. In this section of the poem Whitman is observing all these events that are occurring around him. He starts with a baby in its cradle and continues on, seeing suicides, snow, a sick man and more. As the section is coming to a close he observes “exclamations of women taken suddenly who hurry home and give birth to babes” (163). Albeit small, it is impossible to ignore that Whitman observation of women is them “hurrying” to give birth. The word implies an

As seen above, the majority of homoerotic images is concentrated in a cluster of poems titled Calamus. It is noticeable that Whitman tried to express his sexuality directly, but ended up fabricating “a persona that obscured his true nature” (Bergman 387), thus it is only a bit more particularized than Song of Myself. In The Base of All Metaphysics the lyrical subject speaks of “the attraction of friend to friend” (Whitman 141), the Socratic notion of love, and it is this kind of love that Whitman seems to be most interested in.

& nbsp ; The mechanism of this integration may be one of a number of possibilities included in Whitman's work.  Whitman's notion that "All truths wait in all things" very broadly defines the scope of his desire to distill truth from his surroundings.  He indicates that "...all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers," suggesting that perhaps sensual understanding of the interconnectedness of man bridges the spiritual to the corporal.  Within the context of the passage, the cause/effect relationship between sensual contact and transcendent understanding becomes clear.  His declaration that "I believe in the flesh and the appetites, Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles" reinforces the concept that truth is directly

Whitman is known for being revolutionary for his use of free form verse in the nineteenth century. This style is evident throughout Song of Myself which aids in his descriptions and devices used to get his meaning across. His grouping of three lines per stanza for this section is common for the entirety of “Song of Myself”, which has variations of three line to occasionally five line stanzas. His freedom in his poem’s style and lack of rhyme scheme allow him to fully showcase his thoughts in a new way for this time period. An overall summary of the poem is Whitman’s pondering of himself and the world in behavior and personality to him being fully confident in himself with no existential crisis. For the first half of section 20, Whitman’s character of himself questions everything beyond the ownership of himself. He questions the integrity of other people’s identities and characters as well as ignoring social norms involving manners and religious behavior. The declaration of a lack of manners and questioning the church would have been scandalous to