Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Honors Paper

Degree Name

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies - BA

Department

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Advisor

Paul Eisenstein and Tammy Birk

First Committee Member

Paul Eisenstein

Second Committee Member

Tammy Birk

Third Committee Member

Sarah Beal

Keywords

The Erotic, Film Studies, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Dee Rees

Subject Categories

Higher Education

Abstract

The notion of the erotic is often misunderstood and flattened by patriarchal perceptions of it, but feminist thinkers have been focused on developing a rich and complex relationship to it since the publication of Audre Lorde’s ‘Uses of the Erotic.’ In this project, I will rely on Lorde’s essay and reframing of the erotic to illuminate new understanding of both the practice of ‘lesbian dreaming’ and Dee Rees’s film Pariah. I employ Caleb Ward’s categorization of feeling, knowledge, power, and political action to frame my understanding and reading of Lorde's essay. My project will then rely on feminist thinkers and critics who use Lorde’s work for revolutionary work and teaching as well as those who diagnose the fate of female desire and pleasure under the logics and values of patriarchy. In connection with Lorde’s erotic, I bring in feminist scholars such as Sara Ahmed, Mari Ruti and Tricia Hersey as I theorize my own understanding of the erotic and our sense of self with my conceptualization of lesbians as dreamers. I will then consider Dee’s Rees’ Pariah to engage in a close reading of film and its contents to illuminate how the main character Alike comes to know the erotic through ultimately exhibiting agency while living in a heteronormative and religious home. Pariah is a film that is engulfed in Lorde’s poetic sensibilities, in a narrative where the erotic is not being forced to be thought of in terms of only physical pleasure, but as Alike’s own self-liberation. Lastly, I consider what it may mean to fully embrace the erotic as Lorde sees it, and if the reader has felt it in their lives.

Licensing Permission

Copyright, all rights reserved. Fair Use

Comments

Please Add English - BA and English Department 

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