Chapter Seven - The Culture of Romance
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Romantic love - love corrupted by power and reinforces the sex class system

In the modern world economic and social bases of the oppression are no longer enough to maintain it
	-romanticism is also now included

##Romanticism develops in proportion to the liberation of women from their biology##
-as civilization advances and biological bases of the sex class crumble, male supremacy must shore itself up with artificial institutions
	-i.e. formerly women had been held open in contempt, now they are elevated to states of mock worship
		-gallantry: excessive attention to women without a serious purpose - false flattery

????How does romanticism work as a cultural tool to reinforce sex class?
	(1) eroticism
	(2) the sex privatization of women
	(3) the beauty ideal

		-eroticism
			-the needs of love and warmth are channeled into genital sex
				-people may only touch the opposite sex when they are preparing for a genital sexual encounter
			-people are isolated and starved of physical affection
				- the least sensual stimulus has an exaggerated effect
			----it is the concentration of sexuality - often into highly-charged objects - signifying the displacement of other social /affection needs on to genital sex.------
			-to express tenderness to a woman is to acknowledge her equality.
			-the constant erotic stimulation and its forbidden release through the most normal channels are designed to encourage men to look at women has only things whose resistance to entrance must be overcome
			- women are the only 'love objects' so much so that they regard themselves as erotic
				-this preserves direct sex pleasure for the male; reinforcing female dependency
			!!!!!! women can only be sexually fulfilled through vicarious identification with the man who enjoys them !!!!!!!!

		-the sex privatization of women:
			the confusion of one's sexuality with one's individuality
			the process whereby women are blinded to their generality as a class which renders them invisible as individuals to the male eye
			-this apparatus explains many puzzling traits of female psychology such as:
				-women who are personally complimented by compliments to their sex
				-women who are not insulted when addressed as dear, honey, babe, baby, girl
				-women who are secretly flattered by sexual harassment
				-women who take generalized male horniness as a sign of personal value and desirability
				-the 'clotheshorse' phenomenon: women who are denied legitimate outlets for expression of their individuality, 'express' themselves physically.
			---women have come to believe that the world needs their particular sexual contributions to go on---
			-men a conscious of this technique, speaking of women as only 'ass' 'meat' 'a piece of' 'that bitch' 'this broad'
				-but never speaking these words in front of women, as this would blow their cover
				-women are reduced to their physicality, this makes them indistinguishable, denies them individuality
			-sex privatization encourages men to see women as 'dolls' only differentiated by superficial attributes - not as the same species as themselves
			-one side-effct of this is men appear to be more individual and irreplaceable than they really are - unlike women, they are not differentiated only by their superficial physical attributes.

		-the beauty ideal
			ideals, by definition, are modeled on rare qualities
			if the ideal becomes attainable, it will change to a new, unattainable, ideal
			-women are only allowed to achieve individuality through their appearance
				-this will leave out women who don't fit the ideal, who will force and mutilate their bodies with diets and beauty programs, clothes and makeup. They have no choice.
				-if they do not, their social legitimacy is at stake
			-women become more and more look alike, but are also expected to express their individuality through their physical appearance.
			-Sex Privatization contradicts the Beauty Ideal causing severe feminine neurosis about personal appearance
			-this conflict stereotypes women as a class:
				they look alike, they think alike, and they are so stupid the believe they are not alike.

Woman is not only an Image, she is the Image of Sex Appeal
	-the current beauty ideal becomes all pervasive
	- 'eroticism' become 'erotomania - stimulated to the limit by every screen, magazine cover, billboard, ads
	-ordinary means of arousal have lost all effect
	-Men themselves are seldom portrayed as erotic objects
	----Women's eroticism as well as men's, becomes increasingly more directed towards women
The extension of romanticism though media magnifies its effects
	-the amplification of sex indoctrination exposes the degradation of 'femininity'
The difficulties of attacking the sex class system through means of cultural indoctrination:
	-sex objects are beautiful, an attack on them can be confused with an attack on beauty itself
	-there is no need for feminists to deny the beauty of the face on the cover of Vogue
	-the real question is: is it beautiful in a human way - does it grow, flux, decay, does it express emotions
		- or does it falsely imitate the very different beauty of an inanimate object?
	----to attack eroticism creates a similar problem----
		-life would be drab and routine without spark - that's the point - 
			??????Why has all joy and excitement been concentrated, driven into one narrow, difficult-to-find alley of human experience, and all the rest laid to waste????????
	
##### We demand the elimination of eroticism, not the elimination of sexual joy and excitement ######