The Impact of Internet Pornography on Married Women: A Psychodyna ...

Although MacKinnon acknowledges that women experience sexual pleasure in the context of abuse, she does not attempt to understand what makes powerlessness exciting. The social and radical feminists associate women with submissiveness. However this leads to the question, if women are victims how will they be able to challenge the status quo of the patriarchal power? Benjamin believes that MacKinnon relies on social definitions of men and women and fails to understand the psychological intricacies of the sexual relations between men and women.

Benjamin (1988, 1995) seeks alternative explanations to the understanding of gender domination / submission. She begins by questioning why these particular concepts shape the relationship between sexes and argues that the problem of domination / submission appears to be anchored so deep in the psyche that it seems to be inevitable that men will dominate and women will be submissive. Benjamin wonders about the origins of the particular problem and begins with an observation of Freud. Freud accepted this pattern as normative. He saw the interplay between domination and submission in terms of the Oedipal struggle between father and son. Mature feminine development meant that women would embrace submission, while men would be dominant.

Benjamin (1988, 1995) begins with the assumption that the problem of domination / submission is a dualism that permeates Western culture and continues to shape the relationship between men and women despite society’s formal commitment to equality. In western culture, it is usually the female who provides primary care to children of both sexes. Thus, both the little girl and boy find their first object in the mother. Benjamin (1988, 1995) theorizes that as the first object, the mother influences patterns of identifications and object relations that create gender identity. The little girl’s identification with the mother may compromise her struggle for independence while the boy’s may compromise his dependency needs. According to Benjamin (J. Benjamin, personal communication, August 8, 2003), this theory of human development is generalizable to many women and men. Although she has been criticized for this generalization, it is beyond the scope of this research to critique this theory.