“There Is No Sexual Relation,” so We Represent It

Abstract

The author attempts to make Lacan’s enigmatic statement “There is no sexual relationship” comprehensible, first by analysing the evolution of how sexual intercourse is represented (particularly in the cinema). The author then inquires into the originally “shameful” nature of sexual intercourse (which makes voyeurism possible) and comes to the paradoxical conclusion that the sexes are not made for sexual intercourse, that the sexual act is a bricolage, and that there is no deep complementarity between the sexes. He also sees Lacan’s statement as an expression of the modern narrative, which tends toward a historical critique of the genders: our era has bet on the fundamental equality of the two genders, thus erasing the very concept of gender. Hence, there is a need for the modern woman to recover in her imagination a “submissive” position in the erotic game, precisely to assert her sovereignty and thus re-establish asymmetry between the sexes.