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Asserting Phallic Mastery: Contemporary Research on Masculinity (II)

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Abstract

It is within the journals and texts of cultural studies, rather than those of psychology, that the ‘phallus’ has been most tirelessly tracked down as the ubiquitous symbolic representation of the penis, and hence of male power. One of the predominant influences on this work has been the writings of Jacques Lacan.

There is no doubt that the image of the phallus as power is widespread to the point of near-universality, all the way from tribal and early Greek fertility symbols to the language of pornography, where the penis is endlessly described as a weapon, a tool, a source of terrifying power.

Richard Dyer1

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Notes

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© 2007 Lynne Segal

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Segal, L. (2007). Asserting Phallic Mastery: Contemporary Research on Masculinity (II). In: Slow Motion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230582521_4

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