The Marquis de Sade's Attitude Towards Women The Marquis de
Sade was an author in France in the late 1700s. His works were
infamous in their time, giving Sade a reputation as an adulterer, a
debaucher, and a sodomite. One of the more common
misrepresentations concerning Sade was his attitude toward women. His
attitude was shown in his way of life and in two of his literary characters,
Justine and Julliette. The Marquis de Sade was said to be the first and
only philosopher of vice because of his atheistic and sadistic activities.
He held the common woman in low regard. He believed that women
dressed provocatively because they feared men would take no notice of
them if they were naked. He cared little for forced sex. Rape is not a
crime, he explained, and is in fact less than robbery, for you get what is
used back after the deed is done (Bloch 108). Opinions about the
Marquis de Sade's attitude towards sexual freedom for women varies
from author to author. A prevalent one, the one held by Carter, suggests
Sade's work concerns sexual freedom and the nature of such, significant
because of his "refusal to see female sexuality in relation to a
reproductive function." Sade justified his beliefs through graffiti, playing
psychologist on vandals: In the stylization of graffiti, the prick is
always presented erect, as an alert attitude. It points upward, asserts.
The hole is open, as an inert space, as a mouth, waiting to be filled.
This iconography could be derived from the metaphysical sexual
differences: man aspires, woman serves no function but existence,
waiting.Between her thighs is zero, the symbol of nothingness, that only
attains somethingness when male principle fills it with meaning (Carter 4).
The Marquis de Sade's way of thought is probably best symbolized in
the missionary position. The missionary position represents the mythic
relationship between partners. The woman represents the passive
receptiveness, the fertility, and the richness of soil. This relationship
mythicizes and elevates intercourse to an unrealistic proportion. In a
more realistic view, Sade compares married women with prostitutes,
saying that prostitutes were better paid and that they had fewer delusions
(Carter 9). Most of Sade's opinions of women were geared towards the
present, in what they were in his time. He held different opinions,
however, for how he envisioned women in the future. Sade suggests that
women don't "fuck in the passive tense and hence automatically fucked
up, done over, undone." Sade declares that he is all for the "right of
women to fuck." It is stated as if the time in which women copulate
tyrannously, cruelly, and aggressively will be a necessary step in the
development of the general human conscious concerning the nature of
copulation. He urges women to copulate as actively as they can, so that,
"powered by their hitherto untapped sexual energy they will be able to
fuck their way into history, and, in doing so, change it" (Carter 27).
Women see themselves in the reflection form Sade's looking glass of
misanthropy. Critics say that Sade offers male fantasies about women in
great variety, along with a number of startling insights. He is said to put
pornography in the service of women (Carter 36). The Justine series,
consisting of six editions, was one of the most infamous and well known
series written by Sade. While the series had several editions, the
storyline remained basically the same throughout, though becoming more
verbose in each edition. Two characters emerge from the Justine
novels: Justine and Juliette, who are sisters orphaned at an early age.
These two characters represent the opposite poles of womanhood in
Sade's mind. Justine is the innocent, naive type who gets mistreated
throughout her life. Juliette is Sade's ideal woman, being uninhibited in
her sexual conduct and in her life, murdering and copulating at whim.
She, naturally, does well in life (Lynch 41-42). The story of Justine is a
long and tragic one, taking the naive young girl abroad, where she is
used and discarded by man and woman alike. This is due to the fact that
she is a good woman in a predominately male world. "Justine is good
according to the rules concerning women laid down by men." Her reward
is rape, incessant beatings, and humiliation (Carter 38). Justine's first
encounter in life is with a priest who tries to seduce her instead of offering
her the assistance she seeks. Next, she encounters a financier named
Dubourg. He abuses her and makes her steal. Dubourg is rewarded for
the vices he has by getting a lucrative government job (Lynch 47).
Justine soon is received by Du Harpin, an expert in making loans, plotter
of the robbery of a neighbor, who is utilizing Justine as a intermediary.
Justine is arrested as a result of Du Harpin's misdeeds. She is soon
released by a woman named Dubois, who engineers their escape via
setting aflame the prison (Lynch 42). Dubois leads Justine to an
encounter with her brigand friends, led by Coeur-de-fer (French for Heart
of Iron). They rape Justine between raids in which she doesn't
participate. During one of their raids, they rob and beat Saint-Florent.
Justine helps Saint-Florent escape. He promptly expresses his gratitude
by raping her and stealing the little money she had (Lynch 42). Justine
is left abandoned and distraught in the woods. She happens upon a
youthful count named Bressac in the middle of a homosexual act with one
of his servants. Rather than killing her then for her indiscretion, Bressac
brings her home and forces her to assist with his plan to murder his
wealthy aunt. Justine flees after four years with Bressac (Lynch 42).
She is soon hired by a "surgeon" who is better described as a vivisector,
who practices his science on his daughter and on young children.
Justine, feeling pity, attempts to save Bressac's daughter, is caught, and
is branded as a common criminal (Lynch 42). Justine's cycle of
misfortunes continue for some time. She is visited once again by Dubois
and twice by Saint-Florent, both of whom incriminate her in something not
of her doing. She finally finds her long-lost sister, Juliette, who she
recites her life's story to. Her sister grants her freedom. She lives for a
short time afterwards, shortly disfigured by lightning and eventually killing
her (Lynch 43). Juliette, sister of Justine, lives a different life altogether.
Her early life revolves around her tutors, who introduce different trades.
Her first tutor was Mme. Delbene, a libertine, who introduces infliction of
pain for pleasure. Mme. Delbene's final affirmation to Juliette was, "Oh,
my friend, fuck, you were born to fuck! Nature created you to be fucked"
(Lynch 52). Her next mentor is Mme. de Lorsange, who brings an
introduction to theft, a supplement to carnal pleasure. Under Mme. de
Lorsange's tutelage, Juliette becomes a skilled thief, robbing many. Here
Juliette learns the intricacies of being antiethical (Lynch 53). Juliette's
next learning experience comes from Noirceuil, a believer in the duality
and balance of virtue and vice in people. He is a totally independent
individual. He justifies himself by tracing immorality through antiquity. He
arranges a transvestite wedding, where he dresses up as a woman and
Juliette dresses like a man. He later violates Juliette's seven-year-old
daughter, roasting her alive afterwards with her mother's permission.
Noirceuil is awarded a position in the ministry (Lynch 53). Juliette later
becomes involved with Saint-Rond, a minister and king's favorite. He
introduces her to the Society of Friends of Crime. Justine is initiated by
being asked questions about her sexual activities (both past and present).
Her last oath uttered upon entrance in the Society read,"Do you swear to
forever live in the same degeneracy [as you have all your life]?" She
replied yes (Lynch 53). Sade's two aforementioned characters
represent two factors in Sade's life: reality and fantasy. Reality, in
Sade's eyes, is Justine. Innocence without prosperity, an image of
woman. Juliette represents fantasy. She is what Sade expects and
hopes the woman of the future will resemble: uninhibited, free, equal
(Lynch). So says Gullaume Appolinare in Lynch: Justine is the old
woman, subjugated, miserable, and less than human; Juliette, on the
contrary, represents the new woman he glimpses, a being we cannot
conceive of, that breaks loose from humanity, that will have wings and
will renew the universe. Sade justified his writings and feelings by
saying, "Flesh comes to us out of history, so does the repression and
taboo that governs our experience of flesh." He cites flesh as verification
of itself, rewriting the Cartesian cognito, "I fuck therefore I am" (Carter,
11). Sade punished virtue in his writings. Women are the
representation of innocence to him, which isn't too far from how his
contemporaries felt. By punishing Justine in his novels, he isn't punishing
woman, simply the innocence that woman represents. While Sade
believed that the woman with which he was copulating was simply there
to serve his needs, he also felt it could (and should) work the other way
around. It is as if he is saying, "Just because I use you, it doesn't mean
you can't use me." Sade couldn't be a sexist in the modern sense, simply
because he advocated free sexuality so much. He saw the women of
his time and was troubled by it. In turn, he wrote about these women,
represented in Justine. The woman he saw in the future were a bolder,
free-spirited kind, represented in Juliette. It was the promise of this new
genre of women he looked forward to and was enlightened by. In short,
Sade disliked subjugated women and liked empowered women. He liked
women closer to his own persona. Sade was probably the first
pornographer, and as such, caused quite an uproar. Most of the
judgements made about Sade by critics were reflexes, made without
taking in the full spectrum of what he was, what he wrote, and what he
did. The judgement of Sade by the populus, therefore is one more
severe than it should be.