Penis envy. Do women, or some women, have penis envy? Do women sometimes have a jealous hatred of men?

Question

Penis envy in Freudian psychoanalysis refers to the supposed reaction of a girl during her psychosexual development to the realisation that she does not have a penis. Freudian thought considered this realisation a defining moment in the development of gender and sexual identity for women. When boys realise that girls do not have a penis Freudian theory claims that they develop Castration anxiety.

In contemporary culture, the term is sometimes used inexactly or metaphorically to refer to the idea that adult women wish they had a penis, or to refer to anxieties between men about the size of their genitals.

Sigmund Freud introduced the concept of a little girl's interest in—and envy of—the penis in his 1908 article, "On the Sexual Theories of Children", but did not fully develop the idea until substantially later in 1914 when his work On Narcissism was published. It was not mentioned in the first edition of Freud's earlier Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex (1905).

The term came to significance as Freud gradually refined his views of female sexuality, gradually coming to describe a mental process he believed occurred in girls as they passed through the Oedipus complex from the phallic stage to the latency stage (see Psychosexual development).

In Freud’s psychosexual development theory, the phallic stage (approximately between the ages of 3 and 5) is the first period of development in which the libidinal focus is primarily on the genital area. Prior to this stage, the libido (broadly defined by Freud as the primary motivating energy force within the mind) focuses on other physiological areas. For instance, in the oral stage, in the first 12 to 18 months of life, libidinal needs concentrate on the desire to eat, sleep, suck and bite. The theory suggests that the penis becomes the organ of principal interest to both sexes in the phallic stage. This becomes the catalyst for a series of pivotal events in psychosexual development. These events—although known as the Oedipus complex for both sexes—result in significantly different outcomes for each gender because of differences in anatomy.

For girls:

Soon after the libidinal shift to the penis, the child develops her first sexual impulses towards her mother.
The girl realises that she is physically not equipped to have a sexual relationship with her mother, as she has a clitoris and vagina, rather than a penis.
She desires a penis, and the power that it represents. This is described as penis envy. She sees the solution as obtaining her father’s penis.
The girl blames her mother for her apparent castration (what she sees as punishment by the mother for being attracted to the father) assisting a shift in the focus of her sexual impulses from her mother to her father.
She develops a sexual desire for her father.
Sexual desire for her father leads to the desire to replace, and eliminate her mother.
The girl identifies with her mother so that she might learn to mimic her, and thus replace her.
The child anticipates that both aforementioned desires will incur punishment (by the principle of lex talionis)
The girl employs the defence mechanism of displacement to shift the object of her sexual desires from her father to men in general.
The offshoot of these events, often cited in the media and colloquially, is that a girl really wants to become her mother, so that she can control her father.

A similar process occurs in boys of the same age as they pass through the phallic stage of development. The key differences being that the focus of sexual impulses need not switch from mother to father, and that the fear of castration (castration anxiety) remains. The boy desires his mother, and identifies with his father, whom he sees as having the object of his sexual impulses. Furthermore, the boy’s father, being the powerful aggressor of the family unit, is sufficiently menacing that the boy employs the defence mechanism of displacement to shift the object of his sexual desires from his mother to women in general.

Freud thought this series of events occurred prior to the development of a wider sense of sexual identity, and was required for an individual to continue to enter into his or her gender role.

While fashionable for a number of decades, the concept of penis envy is no longer regarded as a serious one by most psychoanalysts.

Answer 1

have you ever thought about leaving your house and getting a life?????

Answer 2

You have chosen a subject so controversial that Yahoo Answers cannot provide the medium to fairly express it that would come to any resolve.

Your answer to this is, an unequivocal Yes ! But not specifically penis envy as much as an aversion to the way men are and how they can be so, and just what it is that men find to be joyful, see?, which to not few women impress as strange.

There is the somewhat the objective and summary in the way men view things, a free quality about it, not encumbered by needless detail and far less self judging and second-guessing as is found in women. Baggage is less.

For women are much harder upon one another than are men to one another. Their is in men indeed that spark of innocence, that is, accepting of the true nature within.

This goes to the primordial in the animal, which is known as the human being. Obviously, not all women express envious behaviors, but what you are addressing is something much more integral, that which goes deep to the genes themselves, and which frames the polarities of life itself in pictorial terms.

If society did not create such envy, it would occur at its own volition anyway. That which man can find good and joyful -- say, in the looks of some other woman -- will often precipitate an obstruction by a woman again.

Let man find something attractive, whatever that might be, especially another woman, and you can rest assured and quickly observe that some woman will take issue with it -- quick to pull the man's fascination down and obliterate it. Why? Because he finds that woman and not her attractive. There is just that somewhat gravity in women, massive.

The nature of women and men goes deeper than what mere psychological observation can render.

Answer 3

Wow!
That's was a long question..lol..
Serioully, it was very interesting to read about it and I have heard about it also it was even mention in the comdey movie "What Women wants." with Mel Gibson.(great funny movie.)

For my answer:: No.
I'm female but I don't have any envy of having a penis unless its time to go to the bathroom and there isn't any around where as you guys can just pee on a bush. Lol... ;-)

Answer 4

I do not think that women have penis envy but I do feel that women feel if they are doing the same job that a male is doing there should be no difference in any way. I happen to agree with that.

Answer 5

What women resent is the sense of propriety and power a penis represents, much like Freud trying to dictate to women what they want. Women know what they want, and they want it NOW! They don't need some Freudian AH telling them what is OK to want. They have their own concerns, and their own hierarchy, apart from the common concerns all humans share, and apart from the hierarchy of MEN, who seem to think that their world of "Might makes Right" is the one and only world. Women do not rape, they seduce. Freudian Psychology is pretty much totally discredited anyway. Psycho-Biology is where it's at. So women and men both act in a way that over the long term aids in propagating their genes... DUH! And so, will develop different strategies to cope with natural selection pressures because of the different roles they play sexually. No more, no less. You figure it out. Do women envy the penis? Why bother, when you can have one pretty much whenever you want one inside you. Why wish for what you don't need. Do men envy the womb? Now that's a deep question! Did Freud wish he had a bigger penis? Probably. Was Mrs. Freud SOL? Yeah she was...

Answer 6

BTW...is there a question in there somewhere? you might want to try not to copy everything word for word straight from the textbook you just read. I would know what it sounds like because I am taking Intro to Psych and have basically the same info in my book. However, if you meant to put a question on the end, such as "what are you opinions of whether or not women have penis envy?", I would have to agree with Clara Thompson and Karen Horney, pronounced HORN-eye, (straight from my textbook) "that it was insulting philospophy and bad science to claim that half the human race is dissatisfied with its anatomy. When women feel inferior to men, they said, we soud look for explanations in the disadvantages that women live with in their second-class status. In fact, Horney added, if anyone has an envy problem, it is men. Men have 'womb envy': They envy women's ability to bear children."

Answer 7

Once I met a man named Josh, Red haired fella, he said to me:

Even though you have a bird (penis)
doesn't mean your the word
Doesn't mean much of anything.... at alll
For yous a man of many means
Livin' on Lima Beans
And who cares if your sister
Would rather be a Mister.

Wise man. Also,

Just because you faked it
At your computer naked
Pretending the question was real
Like passing off chicken for veal
You have mommy issues
And probably alot of mess tissues


SO get on out and make a friend

Answer 8

Write a novel why don't you. I think most women think it's a handy thing to have once in a while but we're pretty satisfied with what we have.

Answer 9

Penis envy!?! That's funny...you know sometimes I look at my boyfriend stuff his junk into his pant and I often think...man that must be really unconfortable, how do you guys walk around with that ...penis envy you ask...yea, I don't think so.

Answer 10

Some may but I dont. I want a penis in me not on me.

Answer 11

freud was a drug addict when he wrote this. i think penis envy is a crock. I love them on a man. I love and enjoy being a woman and appreciate our diffrences !