Eroticism

Eroticism (from Ancient Greek ἔρως (érōs) 'love, desire', and -ism) is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculpture, photography, drama, film, music, or literature. It may also be found in advertising. The term may also refer to a state of sexual arousal or anticipation of such – an insistent sexual impulse, desire, or pattern of thoughts.

Erotic Kama statues at the Khajuraho Temple, India; the image portrays in the centre a female and male entwined in maithuna, whilst at each side a gazing male and female masturbate (autoeroticism).

Quotes

• There are many kinds of power, used and unused, acknowledged or otherwise. The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling. In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy for change. For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives.
  • Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press. 1984. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-89594-142-8. 

• The erotic offers a well of replenishing and provocative force to the woman who does not fear its revelation, nor succumb to the belief that sensation is enough.
  • Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press. 1984. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-89594-142-8. 

• The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire. For having experienced the fullness of this depth of feeling and recognizing its power, in honor and self-respect we can require no less of ourselves.
  • Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press. 1984. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-89594-142-8. 

• The erotic is not a question only of what we do; it is a question of how acutely and fully we can feel in the doing. Once we know the extent to which we are capable of feeling that sense of satisfaction and completion, we can then observe which of our various life endeavors bring us closest to that fullness.
  • Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press. 1984. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-89594-142-8. 

• The very word erotic comes from the Greek word eros, the personification of love in all its aspects — born of Chaos, and personifying creative power and harmony. When I speak of the erotic, then, I speak of it as an assertion of the lifeforce of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.
  • Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press. 1984. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-89594-142-8. 

• Understanding is a hand-maiden which can only wait upon, or clarify, that knowledge, deeply born. The erotic is the nurturer or nursemaid of all our deepest knowledge.
  • Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press. 1984. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-89594-142-8. 

• When we live outside ourselves, and by that I mean on external directives only rather than from our internal knowledge and needs, when we live away from those erotic guides from within ourselves, then our lives are limited by external and alien forms, and we conform to the needs of a structure that is not based on human need, let alone an individual’s. But when we begin to live from within outward, in touch with the power of the erotic within ourselves, and allowing that power to inform and illuminate our actions upon the world around us, then we begin to be responsible to ourselves in the deepest sense. For as we begin to recognize our deepest feelings, we begin to give up, of necessity, being satisfied with suffering and self-negation, and with the numbness which so often seems like their only alternative in our society. Our acts against oppression become integral with self, motivated and empowered from within.
  • Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press. 1984. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-89594-142-8. 

• The erotic cannot be felt secondhand.
  • Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press. 1984. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-89594-142-8. 

• Recognizing the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world, rather than merely settling for a shift of characters in the same weary drama. For not only do we touch our most profoundly creative source, but we do that which is female and self-affirming in the face of a racist, patriarchal, and anti-erotic society.
  • Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press. 1984. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-89594-142-8. 

• When I speak of the erotic, then I speak of it as an assertion of the life force of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.
  • Audre Lorde, as quoted in Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much (1990) by Anne Wilson Schaef, entry for June 26: "Living Life Fully"

See also

• Beauty
• Nudity
• Pornography
• Romance
• Sexual intercourse

External links

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