Exploring Some Vicissitudes of Feminine Sexuality : Including Excess Sexuality

Abstract

The Paper explores Freud's question'What do Women Want' and asks is this a question relevant for modern times. In examining this question, the paper focuses on the construction of the 'feminine' in Western heterosexual relations, it provides a psychosocial definition of femininity and makes explicit that the focus is on the body and sensual pleasuring in the context of relationship. There is a brief exploration of gender differences in a heterosexual economy and suggests that biology and sexuality form an open  system effected by cultural influences. It is suggested that 'femininity' involves  a developmental journey and a pathway of sexual awakening for orgasmic pleasuring, reviews public representations of feminine desire and pleasuring in the form of Fifty Shades of Grey and offers insights including a detailed case study to identify how women experience their pleasuring and illustrate the complexity of the sexual experience. The possibility of pleasuring without a finite cut off point, how this relates to fantasy, meaning and relationship with the other. In conclusion , although a phallocentric set up still resides in heterosexual relations, there is the space for 'femininity' to transgress such confines and open to new possibilitie.