Archives par mot-clé : Suburban slums

Yves Morhain, Stéphane Proia : feminine et feminity put to the test by the suburban slums

Starting with the postulate that the sexual revolution of the sixties brought about what M. Tort calls « the end of paternal dogma », we suggest that the suburban slums be viewed as enclaves of resistance against the end of an erotic inequality in which the male has the advantage. Beyond the fact that control of femininity is a shared value, virginity continues to considered as sacred, a guarantee of family honor, in the suburban housing projects, while a pervading post-modernity moves towards less difference between the sexes. This clash between two symbolic universes thus increases the conflicts inherent to the delayed action effect of the adolescens process. We will consider that the refusal of the feminine in the adolescent girl and the hatred of the feminine in the adolescent boy result from the same translation of puzzling messages received from the adult other, integrating female sexuality as potentially dishonoring and always dishonorable, and also from a human environment that is « not good enough » to transmit the ways of access to symbolization.

Adolescence, 2009, T. 27, n°4, pp. 983-1005.