SEX TYPING IN JULIE ANNE PETERS’ LUNA
A Thesis
Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
The Degree of Strata One
NURIL BASRI 104026000930
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY “SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH” JAKARTA
ABSTRACT
Nuril Basri, Sex Typing in Julie Anne Peters’ Luna. Thesis. Jakarta: Letters and Humanities Faculty, State Islamic University “Syarif Hidayatullah”, February 2010.
Luna by Julie Anne Peters is a novel about a transgender teenage in America. The objective of this research is to finding out the process of sex typing in Luna novel’s main character on how he becomes a transgender.
Psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund Freud and other concepts that correlate are used as the main tools to analyze the character’s personal complexity. Through the discourse analysis that applied with qualitative research methodology to the novel, exposes events and evident those show main character’s sex typing process. This then initialized that occur many failures along the main character’s sex typing process. As in the main character’s Oedipus complex phase the mother is emotionally being absent, that leads to the state of womb envy, and in the mean time the penis that symbolizes power viewed as lost its function.
APPROVEMENT
SEX TYPING IN JULIE ANNE PETERS’ LUNA
A Thesis
Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
The Degree of Strata One
Nuril Basri No. 104026000930
Approved by:
Advisor
Elve Oktafiyani, M. Hum 19781003 200112 2 002
English Letters Department Letters and Humanities Faculty
State Islamic University “Syarif Hidayatullah” Jakarta
LEGALIZATION
The thesis entitled “Sex Typing in Julie Anne Peters’ Luna” has been defended before the Letters and Humanities Faculty’s Examination Committee on April 27, 2010. The thesis has already been accepted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for Strata One Degree.
Jakarta, April 27, 2010
Examination Committee
Signature Date
1. Dr.H. Muhammad Farkhan, M.Pd (Chair person) _________ _________ 19650919 00003 1 002
2. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M.Pd (Secretary) _________ _________ 19640710 199303 1 006
3. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum (Advisor) _________ _________ 19781003 200112 2 002
4. Inayatul Chusna, M.Hum (Examiner I) _________ _________ 19780126 200312 2 002
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text.
Jakarta, March 4, 2010
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I thank God for everything I am, things He gave to me and obstacles that He blessed. It will be a massive lie if I say that this work is all by myself. Many people and entities contribute to this particular writing that is done for nearly a year in the process. Difficulties and troubles have already been a friend thorough this writing. However, it all seems worthy when I look back to the result and I see the journey of winning this feeling.
I also have to thank my mother for her general support and understanding when I face a lot of dilemmas and sorrows. For every breakfast she has made and for every smile she held on her face. I love her.
To my dear Advisor, Miss Elve Oktafiyani, M. Hum, whom I very admire for her very brilliant thoughts and ideas that often instantly came up from her brain—thanks for always being so nice and patience on me.
Gratitude should come to all these people follow:
1. Dr. H. Wahid Hasyim, M.Ag, the Dean of Faculty of Adab and Humanities, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University.
2. Dr. H. M. Farkhan, M.Pd, the head of English Letters Department. 3. Drs. A. Saefuddin, M.Pd, the Secretary of English Letters Department. 4. All lecturers of English Letters Department for sharing their
knowledge to me.
6. Nilam Permata, S.Sos, for helping me in solving the puzzle in Luna— without you none of this could be happen (if I have to mention how thankful I am for you, it needed another specific chapter).
7. Astrid Mauli, S.Psi, Noor Alifa, S.Psi, and other several girlfriends for giving me more than just affection, but also providing me references. 8. William (Bill) Bennet, MA, for being so friendly and keeping
company from late to morning, reading and revising this piece of work.
9. Risa, Mika, Bayu, Waode, etc. for always understand me whenever I need helps (and to all my dear gay friends too). To all my readers and other friends in Facebook, also Julie Anne Peters herself—the writer of Luna—who has faith in me on doing this.
There will be so many phrases and loving words when it comes to me to write on this personal part of this paper, but I know it will never be enough. Because there are too many people and ‘grateful’ words are not enough to express how thankful I am.
Jakarta, March 2010
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ... i
APPROVEMENT ... ii
LEGALIZATION ... iii
DECLARATION... iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ...v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... vii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ...1
A. Background of the Study ...1
B. Focus of the Research ...5
C. Research Questions ...6
D. Significance of the Research ...6
E. Research Methodology ...6
CHAPTER II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...9
A. Sex Typing ...9
B. Identification ...13
C. Psychosexual Development ...15
1. Oral Stage ...17
2. Anal Stage ...18
3. Phallic Stage ...20
a). The Oedipus Complex ...20
b). The Womb Envy ...22
4. Latency Period ...24
5. Genital Stage ...25
D. The Absent Mother ...25
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH FINDINGS ...30
A. Data Description...30
B. Characteristic of Liam ...34
C. The failure of the Oedipus complex ...38
D. Mother as the Power and the growth of the Womb Envy ...47
E. Father as the Penis ...53
CHAPTER IV. CONCLUSION ...57
A. Conclusion ...57
B. Suggestion ...59
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 61
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Young-adult fiction (often abbreviated as YAdult fiction or simply YA) is fiction written for, published for, or marketed to adolescents and young adults, roughly ages 14 to 21. Young-adult fiction, whether in the form of novels or short stories, has distinct attributes that distinguish it from the other age categories of fiction: Adult fiction, Middle Grade Fiction, and Children's Fiction. The majority of YA stories portray an adolescent as the protagonist, rather than an adult or a child. The subject matter and story lines are typically consistent with the age and experience of the main character, but beyond that YA stories span the entire spectrum of fiction genres. The settings of YA stories are limited only by the imagination and skill of the author. YA novels are often as short as 16000 words. Writing styles of YA stories range widely, from the richness of literary style to the clarity and speed of the unobtrusive. Despite its unique characteristics, YA shares the fundamental elements of fiction with other stories: character, plot, setting, theme, and style.1
1
In the 1950s, two novels drew the attention of adolescent readers: The Catcher in the Rye (1951), and Lord of the Flies (1954). Nowadays some writers like Stephenie Meyer (born 1973): American creator of the popular vampire romance franchise Twilight and J. K. Rowling (born 1965)2 are also categorized as writers of young adult fiction.
Regarding the themes of Young Adult stories:
“Themes in YA stories often focus on the challenges of youth, so much so that the entire age category is sometimes referred to as problem novels3 or coming of age4 novel. From its very beginning, young-adult fiction has portrayed teens confronting situations and social issues that have pushed the edge of then-acceptable content. Such novels and their content are sometimes referred to as edgy.”5
YA novels currently in print—despite of ordinary themes such love, friendship and not-so-crucial problem—include content about peer pressure, illness, divorce, drugs, gangs, crime, violence, sexuality, incest, oral sex, and female/male rape. Critics of such content argue that the novels encourage destructive or immoral behavior. Others argue that fictional portrayal of teens
2 British author, J.K. Rowling is an award winning young-adult author today and arguably the
most successful. Being the author of the extremely successful and critically well-received Harry Potter series, her books have been sold in more than 400 million copies worldwide and are translated into more than 63 languages. She is also the first billionaire-author (in terms of US-dollars).
3
Problem novel is a term used to refer to a sub-genre of young adult literature that deals exclusively with an adolescent's first confrontation with a social or personal ill. It is dealing more with characters from lower-class families and their problems; being "grittier"; using more realistic language; and including dialects, profanity, and poor grammar when it fits the character and setting.
4
Coming of age is a young person's transition from adolescence to adulthood. Particularly in western societies, modern legal conventions which stipulate points in late adolescence or early adulthood (most commonly 18 and 21, at which time adolescents are generally no longer considered minors and are granted the full rights of an adult) are the focus of the transition.
addressing difficult situations and confronting social issues helps readers deal with real-life challenges.
Debate continues regarding the amount and nature of violence and vulgarity appropriate in young-adult fiction. In recent years, however, YA fiction has been increasingly treated as an object of serious study by children's literature critics. A growing number of young-adult-fiction awards recognize outstanding works of fiction for adolescents.
Luna by Julie Ann Peters is a novel that considered to be a young adult novel. Nevertheless, even only as a young adult novel Luna offers a serious theme. It offers a story with a topic which rarely dealt with in young adult fiction. The novel is a complicated novel dealing with complex issues and characters. It may be the first young adult novel to really deal with transgender issues, and as such, it offers an important opportunity for new dialogue and discussion.6 Since that Transgender and transsexual-centric fiction is a rare subset of LGBT7 literature. Most books published by and about transgender and transsexual people are non-fiction, such as: autobiographies, critiques or general LGBT or queer studies texts.8
Luna by Julie Ann Peters is nominated for 19 awards since its publication in 2004, and won most of the honors including as a Best Book Award for Young
6
www.Teenreads.com/0316733695.asp.htmaccessed on March 15, 2009.
7LGBT (or GLBT) is an initial referring collectively to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people.
8
Adult Literature by An American Library Association. Luna is the story of transgender high school senior Liam O’Neil (Luna), a girl trapped inside a male body, and his younger sister Regan, who has been his only confidante throughout their childhood and teenage years. Liam O’Neil spurs his metamorphosis forward by calling himself Lia Marie or Luna and exploring feminine clothes anywhere and anytime he has a chance. The novel is told from the point of view of fifteen-year-old Regan. She struggles with the secret that her older brother, Liam, is a transsexual, who wants to transition9 and live as a girl named Luna. (Liam adopts the name "Luna", which means "moon," to reflect the fact she can only show herself as a girl at night.)
The story portrays a young boy who feels anxious about living in his true identity because there were too many occurrences that pressure his passion to fulfill his basic needs—to be loved and accepted for who he (she) is. This book was a very touching story, not only about transgender people but also about the relationship between siblings in a dysfunctional family. The family has the typical father with clear cut gender role ideas, pushing his son to participate in sports when he has never shown an interest in them. For 18 years Liam pretending that he is a normal guy in front of his sexist father, while his mother turns out has known about Liam since he was child. Since she can’t face up to deal with the reality, so she keeps herself busy by taking drug and pretending nothing peculiar is happening in her family. Liam struggle a dilemmatic condition between wanting to please his father—that demand him to take his gender role as a
masculine man—and fulfilling his desire to be transgender, or even to be a transsexual.10
As a human, Liam indifferently born as an ordinary man. Even so, there are many occurrences that eventually lead him into switching his identification in sex typing, which at first has to be male, but he chooses to be a girl.
This novel, Luna, has a main character that is very interesting to be analyzed through the point of view of psychoanalysis regarding to his sex-typing and identification process. With the theory, there can be found the cause of Liam’s changing direction in identification which exactly has relation to his condition as a transgender. Therefore, in this research the writer will try to analyze Luna’s main character with psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund Freud in order to unveil Luna’s main character psychological aspect.
B. Focus of the Research
The focus of the research is to analyze the story and the character of Liam O’Neil (Luna) through psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund Freud so that the cause of his identification in sex-typing that eventually leads him into a transgender could be revealed.
10 Transsexual people identify as, or desire to live and be accepted as, a member of the sex
opposite to that assigned at birth. Transsexual people indicate whether they have had, or are
planning to have sex reassignment surgery. These physical changes are collectively known as
gender reassignment therapy and often (but not always) include hormone replacement therapy and
sex reassignment surgery. Unlike Transgender people who feel that they convict themselves to
C. Research Question
Based on the background of the study and the focus of the research, found a research question:
How does Liam O’Neil in Luna novel identifies himself as a girl in his sex-typing process?
D. Significance of the Research
The significance of this research is to found out Liam O’Neil’s sex-typing process through Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis theory by analyzing his psychosexual development stage and occurrences that have correlation which happened during his life, that made him into a transgender. This research will also bring about comprehension about sex-typing term, the identification process as part of psychosexual development stage, the concept of absent mother, the womb envy as the contrariwise of penis envy, and the definition of transgender which expectantly can be treated as a new topic of discussion, besides add new knowledge among the readers.
E. Research Methodology
The method that is used in this research is qualitative descriptive method. Qualitative descriptive method describes about the Liam’s psychoanalysis and its attribute relate to the theory.
2. Data Analysis
The writer use descriptive technique to confer the character and its experience that correlate with the research question by reading, studying, examining, understanding, scanning and interpreting the novel in order to make the comprehension of the narration or the selected sentences that could be regarded as the evidence or data support to answer the research question. The writer determines to uses the collected data to explore the psychoanalysis aspect in character Liam O’Neil. To give more support, data also will be taken by reading related websites and papers.
3. Instrument of Research
footnotes and reading references, along with doing interview to some experts or people with appropriate background of study of psychoanalysis matters and theories related.
4. Unit of Analysis
Unit of analysis that is used in this research is a novel Luna by Julie Anne Peters which was published by Little, Brown and Company in 2004.
5. Place of Time
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Prior to the main discussion of the paper, there ought to be some trait theories and concepts that apparently have to be delivered into explanation. At first place, noting to the research question in first chapter, the account of sex-typing itself has to be discussed. Further, the other concepts related will also bring about continuously following that.
A. Sex Typing
Sex typing is not familiar concept among academia in letters department; even so the term has been mentioned in psychoanalysis theory. However, it is already well-known that the psychoanalysis itself has been used as a tool to critics literatures11, therefore the concept of sex typing is integrated to the matter of the theory then can be used as part of the argument.
11
Sex typing refers to “…the adoption of the beliefs, attitudes, and activities which the culture defines as appropriate for one’s sex.”12 Most of the member of western civilization and also in eastern shares a common conviction that boys and girls should behave differently. Beliefs about the specific ways they should differ are sometimes implicit and unconscious; sometimes they are explicit and consciously encouraged. Parents will vary in their attitudes concerning the appropriates of a specific traits for one sex or the other. But, in general, obvious physical aggression dominance, competence at athletics, achievement, competitiveness, and independence are regarded as desirable traits for boys. On the other hands, dependence, passivity, inhibition of physical aggression, and competence at language skills, politeness, social poise, and neatness are some of the characteristic more appropriate for girls. To Justin Pikunas (1969) “Sexual typing may be understood as a process of intrapsychic identification with those personality qualities and traits that pertain to one’s own gender. It begins with a closer identification with the parent of the same sex in early childhood.”13
According to the father of Psychoanalysis, which the theory came from: Freud, “…sex typing is the indirect result of anatomical differences, an integral part of the identification process, and an upshot of the Oedipus complex. The
can be the psychoanalysis of the author or of a particularly interesting character.Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalytic_literary_criticism
12Paul Henry Mussen, et al., Child Development and Personality second edition (New York: Harper and row publisher, 1963), pp. 261-262
13
Justin Pikunas, Human Development: a science of growth (New York: Mc Graw Hill Book
child assimilates the attitudes and behavior of the same sex parent, many of which are related to sex role expectation.”14 In identifying and identification process will be explained further. Hence, in the ideal family constellation, a little boy find it very natural and highly rewarding to model himself in his father’s image. The father is gratified to see this recreation of his own qualities, attitudes, and masculinity, and this is the big contribution to boy identification with father. In the well-ordered, psychologically healthy household, much the same picture, in reverse, holds for the little girl.
Theoretically, the degree to which the child adopts a parent’s behavior is a function of that parent’s nurturance and affection for him, their competence, and power. If the parent did not posses this characteristic, the child would not want to be like him, and would not acquire a positive identification with him.
“The ideal situation for the adoption of culturally approved, appropriate sex-role behaviors would be one in which (1. The same-sex parent is seen as nurturant and possessing desirable characteristic, and 2. Both parents consistently reward-sex appropriate responses and discourage in appropriate ones.)”15
Further, there are several psychological process in which a child would acquire the proper sex-typing. At least three motives are involved in the child’s adoption of sex appropriate behaviors: “1). Desire for praise, affection and acceptance by parents and peers for sex appropriate behaviors, 2). Fear of
14
Diane E Papilia and Sally Wendkos Olds, A Child’s World Infancy Through Adolescence
Second Edition (New York: Mc Graw Hill Book Company, 1979), p. 294.
punishment or rejection for inappropriate behavior, and 3) identification with the same sex parents substitute, or fantasized ego ideal.”16
Here, in the paper, hence the major of discussion is on the umbrella of psychoanalysis, the only point that will be discussed to the sex-typing is the identification process that related to Oedipus complex and its integral part of psychosexual development stage.As according to Paul Henry Mussen (1969), the basic components of sex-typing are: undoubtedly acquired at home, largely trough identification with, and imitation of, the parents of the same sex.
This theory also mentioned in Sandra L. Bem’s journal, “Gender Schema Theory and its Implications for Child Development: Raising Gender-Aschematic Children in a Gender-Schematic Society”. In her journal, Sandra L. Bem states some theories correlating the sex-typing; to the Psychoanalytic Theory, where Anatomy is Destiny (Freud), Sex Typing is result of:
a) understanding differences in genital structure
b) development of penis envy (girls) and castration anxiety (males). c) resolution of Oedipal/Electra complex
c.1. males = identification with same sex parent (internalize the father)
c.2. females = not resolved until symbolically possess father through heterosexual relationship
And hence we can conclude that “…Sex typing refers to the learning process by which children learn behaviors and adjustments appropriate to their biological sex.”17 Along with sex typing goes the process of identification (a psychological accompaniment of sex typing). In other hand, identification seems to be essential in the process itself because adequate moral or conscience has not already developed at stage where the sex typing is occurring.
B. Identification
The second important concept in this paper is called Identification, a concept derived from psychoanalysis and introduced by Freud, “…refers to the process that model or identificand—usually a parent In the case of a young child—belong to him. Identification is not ordinarily a consciously initiated process, like learning to ride a bicycle or to read.”18 Identification is a term that many psychologists and psychiatrists find useful in conceptualizing various aspects of personality development. It refers to the process that leads the child to think, feel, and behave as though the characteristic of another person of group of people belonged to him. The term model is used to refer to the person or group with whom the child is identified.
Although the above definition states that the child thinks and feels as though he possessed the characteristic of another person, it should be recognized
17Boyd R Mc Candless, Children Behavior And Development Second Edition (USA: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston , Inc. 1967), p. 448
18
that identification may be mainly an unconscious process, the child may developed and maintain identification with a model without being aware of it. Identification is not a consciously initiated process like learning to ride a bicycle. It is more nearly comparable to the acquisition of the ability to speak sentences. The process is subtle and often proceeds without conscious awareness.19
The process of identification is correlating to parent of the same sex. The absence or the nurturing parent is taking a massive role into that.
“The process of identification with the parent of the same sex, which is essential for healthy development, is facilitated by a relationship which is affectionate and which is also continuous. Thus, a boy whose father is either absent or indifferent to him, has less chance of developing into confident male than a boy whose father lives at home and is attractively concerned with him. But even the latter may prove an inadequate example. In very many cases of sexual deviation, it can be shown that a parent of the same sex had failed the child by being a deficient sexual model.”20
The nature of identification, Freud suggested, varies developmentally. He distinguished between a prototypical state occurring in early infancy when the child cannot yet distinguished self from others, and the emergence of actual identification, occurring after the child has made this distinction.
In psychoanalytic theory the initial basis for identification, focused upon the person responsible for the satisfaction of such basic bodily needs as feeding, care and protection.21 Later in childhood, a developmentally more advanced form
19
Ibid. 264-265
20Anthony Storr, Sexual Deviation (Maryland: Penguin Book, 1964), p. 34. 21
of identification was based upon a later developing fear, fear of punishment, aspiring from change in the relationship between the child and the same sex parent.
Because of identification is the original and primitive form of emotional
attachment this means that when a baby is born he is not capable of making a distinction
between himself and others. Then the baby has an emotional attachment with his parents
and experiences his parents as a part of himself. ‘The breast is part of me, I am the
breast’. During this process of identification children adopt unconsciously the
characteristics of their parents and begin to associate themselves and copy the behavior of
their parents. Because of this process of emotional attachment a child will develop a
(super)ego that has similarities to the moral values and guidelines by which the parents
live their lives.22
From the explanation above, we can conclude that the identification process mainly happen at childhood, primarily in infancy stage of a child. As part of the psychoanalysis theory, childhood experience and the development in the early age are essential part in later neurosis of a human. Freud called this phase as psychosexual development.
C. Psychosexual Development
Freud divided human development into a series of universal stages which all persons pass through from infancy to adulthood. The stages are delimited by
22Identification (psychodynamic).
the erogenous zone (an area of the body which is particularly sensitive to erotic stimulation) which is dominant at the time. That is to say, at any particular time in the developmental sequence, one body area—specifically, the mouth, the anus, or the genital region—seems to outweigh other areas as a source of pleasure. The stages of development are called psychosexual to indicate that the development is actually that of the sexual drive as it moves through the erogenous zones.
At each psychosexual stage a particular conflict must be resolved before the person can pass on to the next stage. The individual’s libido invested in behavior involving the erogenous zone which is predominant at the time; however, since each individual has fixed amount of libido, the libido must be freed from the primary erogenous zone of the stage it is in (a consequence of resolving the conflict) so that it can be reinvested in the primary erogenous zone of the next stage. Freud used the analogy of military troops on the march to explain this process. As the troops march they are met by opposition (conflict). If they are highly successful in winning the battle (resolving the conflict), virtually all the troops (libido) will move on to the next battle (stage). The greater the difficulty in winning the battle, the more troops will be left behind on the battlefield and the fewer the troops will be able to move on to the next confrontation.
(overindulgence). Frustration or overindulgence results in fixation at a psychosexual stage. Fixation involves leaving a portion of libido permanently invested in a stage development which has passed and is analogous to the dead troops left behind in battle. The amount of libido fixated is dependent on the severity of the conflict.
Inevitably, some libido is fixated at each psychosexual stage. When the proportion of libido fixated at an earlier stage of development is small, only vestiges of earlier modes of obtaining satisfaction are seen in later behavior. However, when a substantial proportion of libido is fixated at an earlier stage, the individual’s personality may become dominated by modes of obtaining satisfaction or tension reduction which were used in the earlier stage.
The psychosexual development divided into phases or stages, here, will be explained each of the stage.
1. Oral Stage
During the first year of life, the child’s mouth is the most prominent source of both his tension reduction (e.g. eating) and his pleasurable sensations (e.g., sucking). The child is said to be in the oral stage of development since the libido is centered in the oral cavity. Many neo-Freudians have broadened Freud’s basic notions concerning oral stage.
relationship in the adulthood, to be unusually friendly and generous, and to expect the world, in turn to ‘mother’ them. It is important to note that this type of theorizing, which is central to psychoanalytic thinking, lays the groundwork for explaining whole patterns of behavior in terms of early events and sets the tone for categorizing adults into character types (e.g. an oral character).
Some neo-Freudians have divided the oral stage into two phases. Thus far in the discussion only the first phase, oral eroticism, has been described. It is characterized by the pleasure of sucking and oral incorporation. The second phase, oral sadism, commences with the eruption of teeth and may be viewed as representing the development of the aggressive drive. Biting and chewing now become part of the child’s behavioral repertoire, and he is able to behave aggressively and destructively. A person fixated at this second phase of the oral stage is likely to be pessimistic, cynical, and aggressive in later life.
Weaning is the crucial conflict of the oral stage. The more difficult it is for the child to leave his mother’s breast or his bottle and its accompanying sucking pleasure, the greater will be the proportion of his libido which is fixated at the oral stage.
2. Anal Stage
pleasure predominates just as oral pleasure predominated during the first year of life. Up until the anal stage, relatively few demands are made on the child. During the second year of life, however, parents in most Western cultures begin to make demands on their offspring, particularly with respect to bowel and bladder control. The conflict in the anal stage pits the sexual drive for pleasure, derived from the tension reduced by defecation, against the constraints of society, which require that the child develop self-control with respect to excretion.
If the child is able to easily accede to his parents’ toilet training demands, he will develop the basis for successful self-control. However, the child may have difficulty in developing sphincter control and thus meeting the increasing demands of his parents. Two fundamental strategies for coping with the frustration of toilet training are open to the child. He may attempt to ‘counterattack’ by defecating at the moments which are inconvenient for his parents (e.g. immediately after being taken off the potty)/ if the child discovers that this is a successful means of social control, he may come to employ the same type of strategy for handling frustration in general.
3. Phallic Stage
Freud taught that during the phallic stage of development every boy desires to kill his father and have sexual intercourse with his mother, and every girl has a desire to kill her mother and have sexual intercourse with her father. Freud attributed these desires to all children between the ages of three and six. According to this theory, both the boy and girl love the mother at the beginning and resent the father because he is a rival for the mother’s attention. This idea persists in the boy until he finally, unconsciously desires the death or absence of his father, whom he considers his rival, and wants to have sexual intercourse with his mother.
“During the fourth and fifth years of life, the libido is centered in the genital region. Children at this age are frequently observed examining their genitalia, masturbating, and asking questions about birth and sex. The conflict in the phallic stage is the last and the most crucial one with which the young child must cope. The conflict involves the child unconscious wish to possess his opposite-sexed parent and at the same time to eliminate his same sexed parent. Freud called this situation Oedipus Complex. The name is derived from the Greek myth in which Oedipus unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother.”23
a).The Oedipus Complex.
The Oedipus complex operates somewhat differently for males and females. The little boy’s first love object is his mother. As the libido centers in the genital zone, his love for his mother becomes erotically
23Robert M. limber and Michael D. Spiegler, Personality, The Strategies For The Study Of Man
tinged and therefore incestuous. However, the boy’s father stands becomes his rival or enemy. Associated with his antagonism for and wish to eliminate his father are the boy’s fears that his father will retaliate. The little boy’s casual observations that woman lack penises suggest to him that his father’s revenge will be extracted in the form of castration. This threat of castration, experienced as castration anxiety, forces the boy to give up his wish to posses his mother. The resolution of the Oedipus Complex is said to occur when the boy represses (puts out of consciousness) his incestuous desires for his mother and identifies with his father. The latter process is called defensive identification and follows from the boy’s unconscious ‘reasoning’: “I cannot directly possess my mother, for fear of being castrated by my father. I can however posses her vicariously. I can get some of the joy of possessing my mother by becoming like my father.” The boy thus resolves his conflict by incorporating his father’s behaviors, attitudes, and values, thereby simultaneously eliminating his castration anxiety, possessing his mother vicariously, and assimilating those behaviors necessary for appropriate sex-role behavior. This Oedipus complex stage is when identification’s process is met in a child.
The Oedipus complex for the little girl, sometimes called the Electra Complex,24 is considerably more complicated and less clear than a young boy. The little girl’s first object of love is also her mother.
24
However, during the phallic stage, when her libido is centered in the genital zone the little girl is likely to discover that while her father and other males (such as brother) have penises, she and her mother (And other woman) do not. She reasons that she must have had penis at one time and she blames her mother for her apparent castration. This, along her disappointment in her mother, such as those revolving around conflicts in earlier psychosexual stages, leads to some lost of love for her mother and subsequent increased love for her father. Her love for her father, which is erotically tinged is couple with envy because he has a penis. Penis envy is, in some case, the counterpart of castration anxiety. However, unlike castration anxiety, which motivates the little boy to renounce his incestuous desires, penis envy carries with it no threat of retaliation by the mother, since the ultimate punishment, castration, has no meaning for the girl.
b). The Womb Envy
women experience penis envy because "men need to disparage women more than women need to disparage men". Horney considers it likely that Womb envy is a psychosocial tendency, just as penis envy is, rather than a quality inherent in men. Vagina envy is a psychoanalytic concept that posits that men are envious of women having vaginas. It has been compared to penis envy in women. Hendrik Ruitenbeek connects vagina envy to men's desire to be able to give birth or urinate in a different way. He writes that this envy can result in misogyny in neurotic people Psychoanalyst Harold Tarpley differentiates vagina envy from breast and womb envy, in which men are envious of women's abilities to become pregnant or physically nurture children.25 The concept of womb envy also means “…the unconscious projection and inversion of the male gaze and fears of maternal power.”26 Not merely that the envious is at the stake of the genital and what it can does in giving birth and urinating in different way, but beyond that, the analogically and symbolically of womb correlating to the power that the woman posses, in this case, mother. In the same journal, Silver (2007) also said that: “At a deeper level men’s fears hide the unconscious wish to be a woman and the disturbing feelings of
25Womb and vagina envy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womb_and_vagina_envy. Accessed on
December, 14, 2009.
26
inadequacy and vulnerability that arise in young boys in relation to their powerful mothers.”27
In this paper, the writer chooses to go along with the term that initiated by Karen Horney and those who agree with her, to put the term of womb envy and vagina envy in the same level and meaning rather than to treat them differentially.
It is not clear exactly how the feminine Oedipus complex is resolved, although Freud does state that the resolution occurs later in life and that it is never complete. It is obvious that even though the mother does not hold the threat of castration over her daughter, she would express considerable displeasure over incestuous relation between her husband and daughter. Presumably, the impracticability of fulfilling her oedipal wish causes the girl to repress her desires for her father and to identify with her mother (defensive identification).
Robert (1974) suggest that the exact pattern of Oedipus complex takes for each individual is a function of his history during the pre phallic stages and of the specific familial circumstances during his phallic stage. Freud considered the resolution of the Oedipus complex to be crucial since he postulated that all neuroses were due to an incomplete solution.
4. Latency Period
Following the resolution of the Oedipus complex, at about the age of five, children of both sexes’ pass into a period known as latency. Latency is not a stage
of psychosexual development, since during this period, which lasts from the end of the phallic stage to the onset of puberty, the sexual stage is dormant. The libido is channeled into such activities as school, interpersonal relations with children of the same age and sex, hobbies, and so on. Freud said little about this period of life, although other psychoanalytic theorist (e.g. Erikson, Sullivan) have placed considerable emphasis on it.
5. Genital Stage
The final stage of psychosexual development begins at puberty when the young adolescent starts to mature sexually and lasts through adulthood until the onset of senility, at which time the individual tend to regress to pre genital behavior (behavior of the oral, anal and phallic stage). In the genital stage, the libido is again focused in the genital area, but now it is directed toward heterosexual, rather than autoerotic, pleasure. The greater an individual’s success in reaching the genital stage without having large amounts of libido fixated in pre genital stages, the greater will be his capacity to lead a normal life, free of neurosis, and to enjoy genuine heterosexual relationships.
D. The Absent Mother
scholar. According to the papers mentioned the absent mother is the concept where the mother is not being existed in the child life, either because the mother left (physically), or, emotionally not being there. According to Jasmin Cori in her unpublished work “Emotionally Absent Mother (a guide to claiming the warmth respect and love mom never gave you)” (2009) the characteristics that must be possessed by a mother are: Mother as Source, Mother as Place of Attachment, Mother as First Responder, Mother as Modulator, Mother as Nurturer, Mother as Mirror, Mother as Cheerleader, Mother as Mentor, Mother as Protector, Mother as Home Base; whereas the mother lack of these characteristic, she could be categorized to an emotionally absent mother. The term of absent mother also can be derived from the concept of absent parents and absent father which both of them are considered to be very important regarding a child growth.
Excerpting from a journal about the absent father:
“… The levels of father-son and mother-son emotional connectedness/distance, measured in terms of intimacy and intimidation, were studied among male Catholic seminarians in Canada. Results indicated that those seminarians who identified their sexual orientation as homosexual scored significantly lower on their level of intimacy with their fathers than did heterosexual seminarians. No such differences existed in the relationship of seminarians and their mothers. There were no significant differences on the intimidation scores. Results lend new credence to the "weak father" theory of homosexuality and to the importance of same-sex emotional connectedness in the psychosexual gender development of individuals…”28
28
Ray A. Seutter and Martin Rovers, Emotionally Absent Fathers: Furthering the
Given example from the excerpt of the journal, it is stated that the role of the absences of a parent—in that journal is the father—can evoke a sexual deviation to the child. It is stated that the father has part in creating the son to be a homosexual. And since that transgender is a form of a sexual deviation29 as homosexuality does, the parental closeness or absences is essential to the matter. However, the writer does not suggest that the absent of the father is the basis of the transgender, it is merely an example of how a parent’s absence taking a role in the sexual deviation of a child. Therefore, the concept of absent mother is also one of the most crucial and needed concepts to the importance of this research.
E. Transgender
In the novel, Liam O’Neil admits himself as a transgender. Although the self awareness in the personality judgment could be wrong or incorrect, however Liam show, by the way of his characteristic and by the explanation that will be perform in the next chapter, Liam is proven that he is a transgender. Therefore, the explanation of the concept must be conveyed first.
Taken from the Wikipedia, an encyclopedia bases on internet: “…Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to diverge from the normative gender roles. Transgender is the state of one's "gender identity" (self-identification as woman,
man, or neither) not matching one's "assigned sex" (identification by others as male or female based on physical/genetic sex).”30 Transgender does not imply any specific form of sexual orientation; transgender people may identify as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, or asexual; some may consider conventional sexual orientation labels inadequate or inapplicable to them. The precise definition for transgender remains in flux, but includes: "People who were assigned a sex, usually at birth and based on their genitals, but who feel that this is a false or incomplete description of themselves.”31 Or "Non-identification with, or non-presentation as, the sex (and assumed gender) one was assigned at birth.”32 In short, transgender is if somebody was a male, he feels that he was a female inside. Also happens vice versa for the female at the first place.
Psychoanalysis views that transgender closely related with the psychosexual development of a child, where a child is within the process of identification. Along the process of the identification—that happens in the Oedipus complex of the phallic stage—children choose the traits that they consider appropriate for them. Whether a child chooses to act feminine or masculine it depends on the successes of the process of the identification—so called the sex typing process that involve the success of the Oedipus complex phase. Therefore, transgender is a result from the failure of those processes.
30Transgender. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender. Accessed on December, 15, 2009.
31USI LGBT Campaign - Transgender Campaign". Retrieved 2007-03-06.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH FINDINGS
The chapter is the discussion of the paper with reference to the research question and the implementation of the concepts and also theories from the chapters before. In the first part of this chapter will be described the major character from the novel. To analyze the cause of the miss sex-typing in identification process of Liam O’Neil in Luna novel, it is needed to convey the description of his characteristic first.
A. Data Description
No. Corpus Description
1. Katie (Mrs. Camacho’s daughter), was shouting to her mom “watch this, mommy…” she said, and jumped to the kiddie pool and makes a big splash. “That’s nice, honey.” Mrs. Camacho replied.
Liam shouts to his mother too.
“Mommy, watch me…” and then he jumped in pool and made a bigger splash. (his mother didn’t respond). know he’s really sitting on the bottom. He can’t swim yet. He looks at Katie,
then me. I show Katie how to be
Salamander and we skittle around the
pool. A movement makes me look up. Liam’s trunks are around his ankles and he’s kicking them off. For a minute he just stands there in the water, looking at himself.” (Peters, 2004: 26) whisper. He sloshes toward Katie and repeats, “take it off.”
“Take it off,” Liam says to his mother. “Take what off? Where are your trunks?”
“Mommy, take it off.” Liam pulls at himself again.
“Stop that.” Mom slaps his hand away. “That’s nasty.” She retrieves his swim trunks from the lawn and shakes them out. Liam backs away from her. “No.” he whines. “I want it off. Take it off, take it off, take it off.” He starts slapping at his penis and stamping his feet, throwing a fit. (Peters 2004, 226)
In experiencing the that knife down.” She appears behind the screen, clutching Liam in her arms. “Connie, I need to run Liam over to the emergency clinic.
Mrs. Camacho rushes across the yard, “what happened?” and yellow sweater set. She’d chosen the brown curly wig… she sings softly ‘Happy birthday to me…’”. (Peters 2004, 221). “I’d like to change my name to Luna, with your blessing (to father). And yours (blessing), Mom.” (Peters
2004, 221).
6. “Mom’s smart, in case you hadn’t noticed. She has a brain. She could’ve accomplished something if she’d finished college, chosen a career path instead of full time motherhood. I think she feels her talents are wasted on perfecting the art of homemaking.”
“She only wants to be fulfilled. As a whole person. She wants her life to count.”
“Mom is reshaping her destiny. Or trying to. We should all be given that opportunity.” (Peters 2004, 59-60).
Liam’s adoration day. You can’t even appreciate the drudgery of cooking and cleaning and catering to you and the kids. It’s mindless. It’s stifling.”
Mom charges out of the kitchen. I think she’s going to hit dad, but instead, she stops and grabs Liam’s picture off the buffet. She smashes it to the floor and the glass shatters.
“I’ve had it with you. I’ve had it with you and these kids and my life. It isn’t enough. I keep telling you that, but you won’t listen. I’m dying inside. I just want out!” (Peters 2004, 138)
8. “Liam’s yelling and kicking this man
and I (Regan) am falling and someone is lifting me up and Liam’s hugging me hard and I’m crying and he’s saying, “It’s okay, Re. I’ve got you now. It’s okay.”
minute!”(Peters 2004, 127) his gender role which made him thinks that his behavior was wrong.
9. “Liam, however, seemed enthralled. Not in Mom’s career, especially, but in watching her. He was girl gawking, which is what I called it, where he sat mesmerized studying how girls talked and gestured and moved. Absorbing, memorizing, imitating. He had Aly down perfectly. The way she tossed back her head when she laughed….. he could do Mom, too”.(Peters 2004, 55-56)
Liam’s evident of first process of being transgender.
10. “Grandpa was always nice to us. To me (Regan), anyway. He used to tease Liam about being a sissy. Spar with him; punch him in the stomach. There was an argument once. Loud. Grandpa hit Liam so hard he fell down and Dad charged across the living room, spinning grandpa around and threatening him with a fist. ‘Keep your hands off him,’ dad said. ‘Don’t you ever touch my son again!’” (Peters 2004, 108-109)
11. “All these years he’d (Liam’s father) tortured Liam with the sports, the sports. His unrealistic expectations. He’d made Liam feel like a failure, feel inadequate as a son.” (Peters 2004, 228).
B. Characteristic of Liam
Liam O’Neil calls himself Lia Marie because he identifies himself as a girl who trapped inside a male body. Later when he is 17 he chooses ‘Luna’—which means moon—as his name from the time when he identifies himself as a girl who only can be seen at night. Liam have problem in identifying himself as a gender he has to be.
Liam was born as an ordinary boy in a typical American family. His father was working at Sears (some kind of store) and his mother was a regular housewife who stays at home for most of her time. This patriarchal family used an old fashion way in the role of man and woman; whereas man should do the work to earn money and woman take care of the house and do the maternity job.
Even so, when Liam dressed in role, his Boy role, as he called it, his appearance will be categorized as stiff and un-casual. “His long sleeved shirt was pressed and buttoned to tae chin; tucked into his khaki Dockers, which were ironed with military precision.” (Peters 2004, 6). Unlike when he puts his girl role, he can be very flexible in dressed and matched up all the shirts, jeans, boots and wigs that he collected from second hand stores. He said that his everyday life is just an acting that he does. “Acting. That’s all I ever do. I’ve been doing it so long, that’s all I can do.” (Peters 2004, 58). Liam only put his girl role at night. He often explores women clothes in her sister’s room, dressing, putting make up on his face, wearing wig and acting out as he is a girl. “She could do this for hours—posing preening… Liam would give up everything to live one day as a plain, ordinary girl.” (Peters 2004, 54). Despite the fact that Liam likes to pose and dress, he doesn’t want to keep mirrors in his rooms since he avoid to see the projection of himself that is not the image he longed to possess. To his effort of being a girl he also shaves all the hair he has. “He shaved his arms. He shaved his legs. He shaved everywhere. He hated the hair.” (Peters 2004, 53).
He and his sister live in the basement of the house where they do their activities. “The parental units pretty much designated the basement as our private
actually.” (Peters 2004, 33). He was afraid if his parents caught him when he dresses as girl.
Liam is actually doing very well in his academic turf. According his little sister, Regan, Liam was a genius, a brainiac. Even only as a teenager, Liam has been financially independent. He works at his parents basement to test the new game that a company created to fix the bugs and to try to crash the system. “It was his job to play all the levels, to evaluate them, rate the graphic, difficulty of user interaction. Etc. The company paid him megabucks to do this. Their kid wizard, they called him.” (Peters 2004, 34). As so stated from the line, He earns a lot of money from that job that when one day his father asked him to fix a car together for him, to make a better bond relation between them, Liam decided to buy a new car by himself and ignore his father.
Because Liam is too feminine as a boy, his father often force him to take more masculine activities in his life,such as working at Jiffy Lube, playing soccer or baseball, “I talked to Coach Hewitt yesterday… Stop by his office after school today.” (Peters 2004, 8) Said his father which now and then ignored by Liam. “I don’t want to play baseball, Dad.” (Peters 2004, 8). There were times when Liam did what his father asked him to do just to appease him, but eventually caused Liam frustrated and decided to commit suicide—which was failed since his sister saved him. Mostly, Liam passion to be alive is so low, now and then he will state that he wish he is dead. “David could’ve killed you. I wish he had.” (Peters 2004, 171) Said Regan once after Liam dressed up as a girl in some stranger house that the children have to be baby sit by Regan. “So do I, (I wish I was killed)” (Peters 2004, 171) Liam said.. “I wasn’t meant to be born.” (Peters 2004, 67). In mourning his presence and for what he is… “He used to cry almost every night.” (Peters 2004, 174). His only passion to live was to transition—having transsexual surgery—and changes his sex. “If I don’t transition, I don’t want to live.” (Peters 2004, 213). Along dressing up in girl clothes, in his teenage Liam chooses reading manga comic as his hobby, he reads ‘Call Me Princess and Love Hina’.
another corporation—which means he earn only some of money that will not cover the family needs, he decided to let his wife to work. To their daughter Regan (Liam’s sister) “…they felt stuck with each other. Then they got stuck with us. They wasted their lives, both of them.” (Peters 2004, 165).
Through the narration of his sister, Regan, Liam has had many occurrences during his stage of life that affect his personality development thus finally lead Liam into identifying himself as a girl, not as a boy, as he should be. The next part of chapter will analyze the process of Liam’s sex-typing and the failure in his identification.
C. The failure of the Oedipus complex
The second part of this chapter is about to discuss the process of the sex-typing and the identification as happens in Liam’s life. As been discussed in chapter two the basic component of sex-typing is gained through the process of identification with the parent of the same sex. Nonetheless, this process of identification happens in the psychosexual development stage. This theory leads the writer to analyze what was happening in Liam O’Neil’s psychosexual stage that eventually leads him to misidentifying himself as he should be.
idolizes and love the mother as the first object of love and view the father as a rival, the so-called Oedipus complex stage33. Each child must get through the phase to step to the next level of development. If any part of the process fails, the child will be frustrated and the stage will not be finished, and so the child will stay in the stage (stuck) until he is able to resolve it.
The main character of the book, Liam O’Neil, was born as an ordinary boy. He leads his life like any other infant and gets through every stage of his psychosexual development until he meets the phallic stage. Since the spotlight of the discussion is the phallic stage, the focus will be on this stage of Liam’s development. According to William Gairdner (2007) “Young children need an uninterrupted, intimate, continuous connection with their mothers, especially in the very early months and years.”34 What happens to Liam is the absence of the mother. In the chapter before the concept of the absent mother described as not only about the physical absence but about emotional absence as well.
The evidence shows that the mother has already been absent even before Liam was six. This is happening at Liam’s phallic stage. The interruption of this stage could have an effect on Liam’s later personality growth because this stage is where the Oedipus complex taking process and Freud himself state, “the Oedipus
33
Freud suggests that the Oedipus complex process happens to boy, the process that applied to girl called Electra complex.
34
complex may justly be regarded as the nucleus of the neuroses.”35
The first example of the mother’s absence is seen at a pool when Liam’s mother (Mrs. O’Neil) is having a conversation with her neighbor Mrs. Camacho.
Katie (Mrs. Camacho’s daughter), was shouting to her mom “watch this, mommy…” she said, and jumped to the kiddie pool and makes a big splash.
“That’s nice, honey.” Mrs. Camacho replied. Liam shouts to his mother too.
“Mommy, watch me…” and then he jumped in pool and made a bigger splash. (Peters 2004, 225)
The response to that action is Liam’s mother is ignoring him. Instead of giving attention to him, she says: “He could’ve at least taken the kids…” talking to Mrs. Camacho about a man’s reckless behavior.
For a boy who is struggling with his oedipal battle, the attention from his mother is supremely important for him to get through the stage, in order that he can continue to the next psychosexual level to grow into a normal person, except Liam, doesn’t receive any of his mother’s attention or caring. Instead, when Liam needs attention, Mrs. O’Neil is disrespecting a man for his behavior. In her book “Catholic World” (1970), Margaret Mead stated: “…A small child also needs someone who is intensely interested in him or her, who will spend endless hours, responding and initiating, repeating sounds, noting nuances of expression, reinforcing new skills, bolstering self-confidence and a sense of self.”
Liam is anxious about his mother not being interested in him. He, Liam, at
35
Sigmund Freud, Introductory Lectures On Psychoanalysis, (New York: W.W Norton co. 1966),
this stage is needing his mother’s presence to fulfill his basic need. It also has been said that in the Oedipal phase the mother is the first love object; however Liam could hardly find that (love). The Oedipal phase is already arrested. And it means that Liam has lost his Oedipal battle. "The infant's first love for the mother is directed toward material satisfaction. (Stomach love, cupboard love, egoistic love; 'to be fed.') Object love is still egoistic but directed toward nonmaterial satisfactions, i.e. to receive love, affection, approval from the mother; to be loved."36 In short, from the excerpt the writer suggests that the reason for the failure of the oedipal battle is that Liam doesn’t meet his need to be loved.
As has been said, Liam is having the anxiety; Liam reacts to his mother’s action (or in this case the ‘no-action’) as described in the narrative. Katie (Mrs. Camacho’s daughter) and Regan (his little sister), ask their mothers to have their swimsuit taken off because of their itchiness. The parent makes them undress. Here, Liam is watching them naked.
“Liam pretends to tread water, but I know he’s really sitting on the bottom. He can’t swim yet. He looks at Katie, then me. I show Katie how to be Salamander and we skittle around the pool. A movement makes me look up. Liam’s trunks are around his ankles and he’s kicking them off. For a minute he just stands there in the water, looking at himself.” (Peters, 2004: 26)
Witnessing his playmates taking off their clothes gives an impulse to Liam to do the same thing. In this part, Liam is comparing his body to his friend and sister that happen to be all female at that time. And he finds out that they have
36
Mary D. Salter Ainsworth, Object Relations, Dependency, And Attachment: A Theoretical
differences. “He looks at Katie… and looking at himself” (Peters, 2004: 26). In the 20th lectures “The Sexual Life of Human Beings”, Freud said that children do not relate to the distinction between the sexes, for the boys attribute the same male genital to both sexes. And if afterward a boy discovers the vagina (Liam seeing girls naked), it first comes to his mind to disavow the evidence of his senses, for he cannot imagine a human creature like himself who is without a precious portion (his penis).
Essentially, he sees that girls have vaginas and he has a penis. Liam is experiencing the difference of what he has and what he doesn’t. This difference makes him frustrated. On one occasion, Liam had faced two different frustrations (the ignorance from his mother and the new discovery of genitalia). The later frustration should not be a big consideration, since it is normal and every boy is going through the phase. However, because Liam is in the Oedipus complex phase, the fear of castration is an important part of the process. In this phase, a normal child should fall in love with the mother, but afraid of the power of the father, Liam should be scared of the punishment of castration that will be done by his father if he loves his mother because he knows that the mother belongs to the father.
theory that all humans have a penis, and the punishment is the castration as happened to the female. But we all can see that Liam’s Oedipal battle itself has been start the cycle over (modified). Instead of facing the fear of his powerful father, he is facing the anxiety of how and why his mother is indifferent to him. The later frustration, the facing of the differences, is then becoming a major problem and new anxiety. Liam is no longer afraid of punishment by his father, but is rewinding the process of the oedipal stage to its very first step: to get the mother’s attention—love.
His early experience that Katie is getting attention from his mother, while Liam is not, brings Liam to the conclusion that the rule of attention and love from the mother is the result of the difference of the genitals. At this point, Liam concludes that the reason why his mother does not care about him is because he has a penis. And that Katie got attention as a result of her possession of vagina/womb. This concept is then called womb envy. 37
Again and again the writer suggesting the mother has a major impact on the child’s life because of the many experts and writers who state that the presence of the mother during the early years is extremely important to their child’s optimal development. “By being the person who is continually there with and for her child, by being the one to whom he turns for love, attention, guidance, assurance, and reassurance, the mother becomes the most important person in her
37
child’s life...”38 The statement vividly supports the theory that the mother is the first most important object in child life, where her mistakes can be fatal. The writer proposes that Liam’s Oedipus complex phase is modified.
Liam has to be in love with his mother; he has to seek a way to get his mother’s love back that eventually can lead her into the true object of love. In short, how could a boy fall in love with a girl that is indifferent to him? Nevertheless, the boy has to find the way to make the girl be in love with the boy himself. Since that the Oedipus complex is being modified—failed as it has to do, in Liam’s eyes, the father is no longer an enemy, and so he is not afraid of the later castration punishment, therefore, the discussion of the father will be left until later.
The discovery of the new concept—which resulted from his later frustration—gives Liam a new theory about meeting his very first need; to be loved by his mother. After knowing that the differences in the genitals are consequential in his mother’s love, attention is then given to the genital that he possesses. He has to lose his penis to be treated like Katie. In other words, he has to be castrated.
Liam grabs his penis and starts to pull. “Take it off,” he says, almost in a whisper. He sloshes toward Katie and repeats, “take it off.”
“Take it off,” Liam says to his mother. “Take what off? Where are your trunks?”
“Mommy, take it off.” Liam pulls at himself again.
“Stop that.” Mom slaps his hand away. “That’s nasty.” She retrieves his swim trunks from the lawn and shakes them out. Liam backs away from
38
her. “No.” he whines. “I want it off. Take it off, take it off, take it off.” He starts slapping at his penis and stamping his feet, throwing a fit. (Peters 2004, 226)
Liam’s mother is bewildered. She tells Mrs. Camacho that Liam is having testosterone transition. In her denial, Liam did not want his penis to be taken off, but he was turning to be a boy—as Mr. O'Neil called it, playing with his penis. Liam is then dragged to the house and left alone inside. Not long after that, the phone was ringing and Liam’s mother went to pick it up. What she found was Liam bleeding to his feet.
“What have you done? Oh my god. Put that knife down.” She appears behind the screen, clutching Liam in her arms. “Connie, I need to run Liam over to the emergency clinic.
Mrs. Camacho rushes across the yard, “what happened?”
“He cut his… his leg. Will you watch Regan?” (Peters 2004, 227)
By pulling his own genital seems cannot fulfill the eagerness to be loved by his mother. In a way or another he has to castrate himself. Soon after, he used the extreme way to do it, to cut his penis using a knife. Afterward in his adolescent phase this extreme way that he has chosen will be replaced by the eagerness to perform transsexual surgery. This determination of taking the penis can be seen as the tremendous desire to gain Mom’s attention. The writer concludes here, the action is the justification of the importance the mother.
the phase that he failed in will remain in his personality, unless he finds out the release of his anxiety. Liam, as the writer discussed, has failed in his oedipal battle that happens in his phallic stage.
Concluding the part of the discussion, whether or not it is closely related the transgender issue with the matter of homosexuality, in his book The Psychological Society, Martin Gross (1978) explain the failure of the Oedipus complex battle resulting the child to the homosexuality.
“… Freud and many of his modern successors saw homosexuality as the penalty for the boy child’s failure to win the Oedipal battle against a seductive, overbearing, over-affectionate mother—the classic Mrs. Portnoy. Instead of finally identifying with the hated father at the resolution of the Oedipal rivalry, the child identifies with the mother. Thereafter, the now homosexual male seeks other men as his love object . . .. In the Freudian homosexual model, the penis-adoring child also shows disgust for the penisless woman. This is coupled with his castration fear at the hands of an angry father-rival…”39
So to speak of the matter, this implementation of failure in oedipal battle therefore can also be applied to the concept of the failure of the oedipal battle that eventually leads to transgender; which in this paper happens to Liam. The difference was located in the cause of the failure of the oedipal battle itself, where the homosexual view the mother as seductive, overbearing and affectionate, Liam finds that his mother is indifferent, less caring and emotionally absent.
What Liam was yearning for is to complete the stage so he able to diminish his neurosis. Tragically, along his effort in getting his mother’s love—to complete the stage—the mother keep on continuing her absence simultaneously
39
