On Drag Queens and Female Transvestites: Comparing the movie Artificial Intelligence with the human phenomenon of female perversions
I would like to discuss the phenomenon when one feels compelled to wear clothing of the opposite gender, whether it be male or female, which is also accompanied by the conscious or unconscious feelings one might be the respectively opposite gender object. It is believed that such people are plagued with insurmountable anxiety — a terrifying mix of abandonment, separation, and castration anxiety. For the male, the scarf, the skirt, the piece of lace, or the silk dress reassures him about a number of things that are very important to the little boy. First, that his body parts are all there and in one piece. Secondly, he has, through this clothing or accessories, his mother’s disappearing body and has been reunited with her. Like that magnificent all-powerful creature, he has a penis under his skirt like his adorable mother, he can be desired by his father, like his phallic mother, he can now submit to his father without feeling like a castrated woman, his penis is intact. His terrifying father shouldn’t be concerned with having to castrate his little rival, for the boy is only a charming ineffectual little girl, there is no humiliating difference between the boy and his father or the boy and his mother. Everybody is equal. When he puts on his mother’s dress or scarf, the little boy feels reassured about all those things. Then, and only then can he go on with being a real boy.
The female transvestite, like any other overtly masculine woman, has a “life-long” daydream narrative that if she were a man rather than a woman, she could undo the past and find a loving mother inside some female erotic partner. Therefore, are female lesbians who assume the sexuality of female transvestites yearning to recuperate the lost territory of an erotic female surrogate mother? This psychic state stems from the primal scene and the relationship between mother and daughter. Is there perhaps desperation to find her feminine identity in the caricature of male virility, here equating nurturance and surrender with susceptibility to debasement, her division of the world into phallic and castrated beings.
For the female non-transvestite bisexual, the bulging belly of the bicep, or the overdeveloped quadriceps muscles in the physical display of prowess, especially in competition, reassures her that her vagina has not been castrated and, in fact, she is still in full possession of functional, feminine genital, reproductive parts. There may be other types of modifications to the non-transvestite, female bisexual’s traditional gender role like pursuing primary masculine occupations as a police officer, mechanic, construction worker or she may assume traditional feminine occupations like teacher, journalist, research assistant. She can now submit to other female or masculine objects in her relational orbit without feeling like a castrated woman. She will not feel inferior even though a lowering gender status schema has been operating. She has after all compensated for it through sports training and weight lifting. She can now be desired both by a surrogate mother substitute and by her father in this bisexual arrangement. However, she may choose only one of these genders as a long-term companion and spouse. In the display of these female masculinities, if she chooses a male spouse, she can now submit to her father without feeling castrated. If she chooses a female spouse, she can now submit to her surrogate mother as an erotic equal or perhaps maybe even a superior. So, when a woman goes through the trouble of “putting on” the body of masculinity she can feel reassured about her femininity and becoming equal to both phallic mother and father. Then, and only then can she go on with being a real girl.
Only in the context of the social environment are female perversions and deviant forms of sexuality created. To compound the problem, repudiations to these forms of disarticulations which resulted from such perversions create hate, homophobia, and delusions of evil. These emotions go on to fuel the targeting and violence these groups have to endure.
In the space of psychiatric treatment, I once had a psychiatrist tell me that my homosexual phantasies had something to do with not being a “real girl.” Like a female Pinocchio, I was likened to wooden “automata.” Puppets, or the psychoanalytic equivalent to human toy “automata.” Inanimate objects that exist in the real world, but are manipulated and exploited by their puppet masters. Should this surprise me since some doctors perceive their patients as test subject automata?
I would like to make a comparison to the movie “Artificial Intelligence” directed by Stephen Spielberg and released in 2001. Human objects are used as a “means to an end” in many areas of life like employment contracts, sexual reproduction (surrogacy), pornography and prostitution, and as human test subjects in human experimentation. But today we have androids and robots. These forms of “automata” are desirable because they do not consume vast amounts of resources beyond the initial stage of manufacturing, thereby relieving our planet of the very real human aspect of infantile human destructiveness.
In the movie “Artificial Intelligence” the boy android called David is cast aside by his mother after the step-wise process of imprinting took place. This imprinting process sealed David’s love for the woman he was given to as a gift, much like the social bonding of passionate attachments in early childhood development. After hearing the fairytale of “Pinocchio” read to him by his new mother, David believed if he could find the “Blue Fairy” and ask her to turn him into a “real boy,” then the mother who cast him aside will love him. However, the mother who cast him aside did so in favor for the safety of her own biological child whom David was being cruelly manipulated by in a child’s social game. Of course, the mother acted irresponsibly in casting David aside and turning him out into a world without any protection or safety net. Especially because it was her biological son who was being cruel to David.
As a result, David goes on a perilous journey in search of the Blue Fairy, an imaginary being from the child’s fairytale. After many dangerous encounters and altercations with humans interested in harming him, David finally finds the Blue Fairy and intently stares in amazement at this beautiful being who he believes can turn him into a real boy. He sits there starring out onto her visage and constantly repeats the phrase, “Please make me a real boy.” He sits there for over 2000 years before he is finally discovered by an advanced race of A.I.
In this perilous journey, it is important to note the very real human need “to be loved” as well as the very real human need to feel that you “are loved more than other.” Scenarios of parental rejection as well as parents who choose favorites among their children may antagonize lateral competition in the relationships of siblings which can go on to create repetition behaviors in their children. Now, repetition behaviors are not necessarily considered bad in classical psychoanalytic theory, if the child’s sexuality is cemented in sexually pursuing the opposite gender. This is perceived as normal. But make no mistake, the Oedipus complex strands us on the psycho-social shores of our human sexual development whether we be homosexual or heterosexual.
In the movie “A.I.”, David is what we call “automata”; an android robot used for the manipulation and exploitation of human goal attainment and human wish-fulfillment. David’s arrival at a goal, “to find the Blue Fairy based in a driving need to be loved by the mother who cast him aside,” begins the performance of a repetition behavior, but is someone how admired even in the face of David brutally beating another replica of himself. He exclaims to this look-a-like droid, “You can’t have her” right before he beats the face off of the other Mecha whom he believed was after his human mother’s affections too. His goal is a repetitive behavior that is repeated daily until he finds an advanced species of future artificial intelligent beings. When one of these advanced beings assumed the image of the Blue Fairy and explained to him he cannot be turned into a “real boy” did David finally stop. Although his wish was an unattainable wish, his wish-fulfillment of “being loved” by his human mother is eventually granted to him, even if it is only for one day. This allows him to finally experience the love that had so long been denied, not at all unlike the creation of homosexuality and other female perversions.
We can, through this rendering, understand how female perversions created in the castration complex of Oedipus contributes to the development of human phenomena of such things as drag queens, transvestites, homosexuality, lesbians, bisexuals, female transvestites, and transexuals.
Please consider the following link:
https://www.grunge.com/43180/darkest-parts-pinocchio-nobody-talks/
