Goth female iconhood made an art of deliberate self-objectification rather than asserting subjectivity

Evidence

It is almost as if the female goth response to this dilemma is to self-consciously assume the role of the “cold, distanced, inhuman partner” (Žižek) of phallic desire. The glam male remains trapped in his perfect penthouse populated by dumb fantasmatic playdolls; the goth female meanwhile roams through the roles of vamp and vampire, succubus, automaton. The glam male’s pathologies are those of the subject; the goth female’s problematic is that of the object. Remember that the original sense of glamour — bewitchment — alludes to the power of the auto-objectified over the subject. “If God is masculine, idols are always feminine”, Baudrillard writes in Seduction, and Siouxsie differed from previous pop icons in that she was neither a male artist “feminised” into iconhood by fan adoration, nor a female marionette manipulated by male svengalis, nor a female heroically struggling to assert a marginalised subjectivity. On the contrary, Siouxsie’s perversity was to make an art of her own objectification. … Like Grace Jones, another who made an art of her own objectification, Siouxsie didn’t demand R.E.S.P.E.C.T. from her bachelor suitors (with the implied promise of a healthy relationship based on mutual regard) but subordination, supplication. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1037

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes male-subject vs female-object pathology and reconnects glamour to its root meaning of bewitchment.
• XREF: Connects to the wearing/immodesty and female power-through-objectification themes; parallels the Lacanian courtly-lady discussion in the adjacent paragraph. — connects to: Goth women’s power comes from staging the refusal to be what male desire wants — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1036; Narcissistic self-fashioning lets woman express personality without being beautiful — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1800; Feminine presentation is coerced self-objectification in disguise — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 900 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Goth women’s power comes from staging the refusal to be what male desire wants #contradicts (0.85) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1036
• Feminine presentation is coerced self-objectification in disguise #contradicts (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 900
• Narcissistic self-fashioning lets woman express personality without being beautiful #qualifies (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1800
• Even self-directed feminine adornment requires an external gaze #qualifies (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1574
• Goth makeup deliberately erases organic expression with geometric masks #expands (0.72)