The “Grunge” of Punk-Rock: Slacking Off

Abstract

The transgressive behavior of youth where perverted masochistic fantasies are expressed through Nü heavy Metal music point to the inability of many young men to name what their mothers desire. Something is “not present” for them, and that “something” has to do with sex, which too has not been named. It remains ambiguous. The Mother does not seem to want the Father. Because the mother’s lack has not found an object of desire, the young man is faced with the perplexity of her “lack of a lack.” In not knowing what she wants the child is left facing her demand as a “phallic mother” who is all-powerful and omnipotent. In perversion this naming or symbolizing for the child as to what the mother lacks does not occur. There is no relief from the anxiety of a child acting solely as the complement to the mother’s demand, to always please and provide her with complete satisfaction. Such a familial situation can be detected in metal music, along with an absent father or an abusive Jouissant Father. If the father is absent there is always a danger that the mother totally assumes the symbolic lawful burden, which is then disavowed by her children. If the father is abusive, she is often blamed for not protecting her children and the paternal Law is once more disavowed. Either way, the mother is the loser where authority has been weakened.