Male ………………. Female
∃x : ‘There is at least one x.’
__
∃x : ‘There is not a single x which …’
Φx : ‘x is subject to the phallic function.’
__
Φx : ‘x is not subject to the phallic function’
∀x : ‘ All x‘s’
__
∀x : ‘Not all x‘s.’
x : jouissance
a : The object (a), Desire’s cause remains beyond signification, unsignifiable. Signifies the Other’s desire insofar as it serves as cause of the subject’s desire; but object (a), considered to play a role “outside of theory,” that is, as REAL, does not signify anything: it IS the Other’s desire, it is desirousness as REAL, not signified.
Φ : The phallic function: the function that institutes lack, that is, the alienating function of language. The phallic function plays a crucial role in the definition of masculine and feminine structure, for the latter are defined differently in terms of that loss, that lack instituted by alienation, by the splitting brought on by our use of —or rather use by— language (TLS Fink 103). The phallus is the signifier of lack. The phallus is never anything but a signfier, it is the signifier of desire. Insofar as desire is always correlated with lack, the phallus is THE signifier of lack.
La: Indicates Woman‘ who does not fall into a set, as she is not completely defined by the phallic function. “Woman does not exist”: there is no signifier for, or essence of, Woman as such. Woman can thus only be written under erasure: Woman.
-image deleted- signifier of the barred Other, feminine jouissance, Other jouissance (TLS 115).
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It is precisely because masculinity and femininity represent two non-complementary structures, defined by different relationships to the Other, that there can be no such thing as a sexual relationship. What we do in any relationship is either try to turn the other into what we think we desire or turn ourselves into that which we think the other desires, but this can never exactly map onto the other’s desire. In other words, the ‘major problem of male and female subjects is that they do not relate to what their partners relate to in them’ (citing Salecl 2002:93, in Homer 106). In a sense, we always miss what we aim at in the other and our desire remains unsatisfied. It is this very asymmetry of masculinity and femininity in relation to the phallus and the objet a that means that there can be no such thing as a sexual relationship (Homer 106).