Female Bonds and Intimacy

In order to understand how women connect and form relationships, its also important to understand how society views these relationships. While female alliances are often ignored or unrecognized, there are two schools of thought that currently exist regarding female friendship and intimacy.

The first presents an "idealized" view of female friendship. The "idealized or polite model designates a culturally sanctioned version of female friendship as a relationship practically devoid of sexual expression . . .". [6]In other words, this picutre of female intimacy is platonic and innocent, with no threat towards marriage or domestic life.

The other is far more dangerous in the eyes of society. The "sexualized" version of female intimacy "not only takes into account of how sexual relationships between women are conceived . . .but [emerge] to explain, regulate, and caution against female homosexuality and, in some cases, deny that sexual relationships between women could even occurr." [7]In this model, one can see society's growing fear of female intimacy, how it may result in homosexuality, the diminished importance of men and the father, desrctuction of the domestic sphere, and even interruption of political life.

 

 

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