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February 4, 2006
Penis, uh, Envy
Having recently posted something about the cunt, I thought I might balance things by posting something about the penis. But although I'm straight and enjoy straight sex, there's no way on god's green earth I'd post something about how great the penis is--I'll leave that to people who possess and admire them. Instead, here is the beginning of something I wrote a few years ago about how ridiculous the concept of penis envy is.
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I can't prove this, because I'm neither an etymologist nor a historian of religion, but it seems logical to me that when Envy was originally named one of the Seven Deadly Sins, it didn't mean what it means now. I think this for several reasons: 1) The current meaning of Envy, "a feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by another's desirable possessions or qualities, accompanied by a strong desire to have them for oneself" seems to be covered already by another of the SDS, Avarice. 2) At one point, envy was the noun form of its etymological cousin, the adjective invidious, which means "tending to rouse ill will, animosity, or resentment; offensive;" Envy was that ill will, animosity, or resentment; an obsolete meaning of Envy is "malevolence." 3) Cold, calm, calculated malevolence is pretty damn scary compared to the other deadly sins--OK, Wrath is bad, but I'm not sure it's worse than a calmly considered desire to harm someone. 4) The older meaning of Envy can include the newer meaning, and after all, the point of listing Seven Deadly Sins wasn't so much to say that only these serious sins existed, but to identify attitudes and appetites that could lead one to commit evil acts.
Aside from its confusing position as one of the Seven Deadly Sins, Envy is perhaps best known as what follows penis in penis envy. I know it's an application of Envy's obsolete definition, but I sometimes think about "ill will, animosity or resentment" in relation to penises, and sometimes it seems apt. I have nothing in particular against the penis except this: the fact that its appetites are invoked as justification for hurting the weak and bolstering the power of the strong.
And I sure as hell don't wish I had one.
Posted by Holly at February 4, 2006 9:59 AM
Comments
Hi Holly,
I rather like this kind of play with linguistic history, and I think you may be onto something interesting, here, asking what we can really learn about penises and envy from freudian theory and antique moral discourse.
I think I may have quite a lot to say about this (if you don't mind me using your comment section to think aloud at length, and without any great expertise). But for now, it is late, and I don't have the energy to pull it all together, so I'll just leave a couple of relevant quotes from St Gregory's Moralia, the first work to lay out the seven deadly sins.
On the particular perniciousness of envy:
"…though every sin that is committed spreads abroad in the human heart the poison of the ancient enemy, in this crime particularly, the serpent draws on everything inside him and brings forth the plague of malice to impose on another.… When the foulness of envy has corrupted the vanquished heart, even outward appearances show how gravely the soul is afflicted within by madness. The complexion is touched with pallor, the eyes are downcast, the mind is inflamed but the limbs grow cold, there is madness in thought and gnashing of teeth; and when hatred hidden in the thickets of the heart grows greater, a hidden wound pierces the heart with blind grief. It takes no pleasure in what is its own, because its self-inflicted penalty inflames the festering mind, tormented by another's happiness."
The devil himself as motivated by envy:
"So it is that the clever enemy crept up on the first man out of envy, because having lost his happiness he knew that he was inferior to the immortality of the man."
Possible resonances between St Gregory's ethical practice and psychoanalysis:
"For when I turn inward to myself, pushing aside the leafy verbiage, pushing aside the branching arguments, and examine my intentions at the very root… I find that I have in fact done other than what I know I set out to do."
"But I think it worthwhile for me to reveal unhesitatingly here… everything I secretly revile in myself.… [I]n my confession I uncover my wounds.… I have not withheld medicine from the ones, but I have not hidden my wounds and lacerations from the others."
Posted by: whortleberry at February 5, 2006 11:18 PM