This forbidden pleasure makes society as the lacking subject. According to Lacan, the forbidden pleasure will raise question toward the symbolic law that
cannot provide the origin of desire that is maternal attachm ent or mother‟s
nurturance.
70
From this argument, Lacan proves that symbolic father is also the lacking subject which cannot fulfill the daughter‟s desire and cannot construct the
complete self-subjectivity for the girl. The lacking subjectivity of the symbolic father subverts psychoanalytic theory that proposes the importance of symbolic
father as the accomplishment for castration complex. Buhle claims that psychoanalysis just facilitates an understanding that a subject is an emotional
figure that has the missing part in herself, which is the origin of desire.
71
She reveals that symbolic order only helps the subject to cover her psychosis or mental
illness for mother- daughter‟s separation, but not from the unity of distorted image
with the mother that has co nstructed the daughter‟s origin of desire.
After all, the theories above help this study to reveal the failure of the symbolic father to be the complement for the daughters lacking phallus. Even
though the ego and ego-ideal trigger the daughters desire to the symbolic father, the original desire for maternal attachment cannot be denied. Lacans analysis
about the authority of Meaning and the importance of pleasure provides two important views for this study; the nurturance and autonomy needed by the
daughter. During the shift to the symbolic father, the daughter does not only seek autonomy, but also attention and love. While this original desire is denied, the
movement of resistance comes to the surface.
70
Easthope, p. 94
71
Murray, p. 328
2.2.3 Sisterhood
Self-identification to mother and father is no longer seen as the effective way to secure the daughter‟s identity. Both those identifications restrain the self-
freedom and construct feminine gender identity. As preventive concept toward patriarchal motherhood and symbolic father, this study uses the notion of
sisterhood or female bond. In this third sub-chapter, the discussion is focused on how female bond helps the daughter to re-experience the maternal forms, and all
at once to be aware of her self-identity or to avoid imaginary unity between women through the notion of inter-subjective dialogue.
From the review of previous theories about patriarchal motherhood and symbolic father, it can be argued that the daughter keeps the desire for maternal
attachment while she constructs a relationship with society. Related to the importance of mothers existence in her daughters life, Campbell argues that
primary identification involves an affective relation to the parent, especially mother, while the secondary identification involves the projection of parent
mother into the ego.
72
The projection of mother in symbolic realm constructs the continuity of relationship to maternal forms. Campbell also notes that relationship
to the maternal figure forms and structures the female subject in a relationship with another woman.
73
Thus, from her argument, the notion of sisterhood is regarded as an effective way to save the daughter from her desire to maternal
attachment. The role of female friends as a substituted mother will help the daughter to fulfill her loss of nurturance.
72
Campbell, p. 92
73
Campbell, p. 93
Meanwhile, it is also important to highlight that female friendship should not repeat the notion of imaginary unity between the daughter and the substituted
mother. To avoid the imaginary unity and mastery of identity from other women, the daughter needs to be aware of her self-competence. This third sub-chapter
does not only focus on the role of female friends as a provider of nurturance but also focuses on the inter-subjective dialogue between women. The inter-subjective
dialogue in sisterhood involves constructive critique and solidarity in order to help women understand their dependency and weaknesses. Thus, by doing this those
women empower each other and construct their self-identity as a speaking subject. Under the concept of sisterhood, the daughter can express her freedom; to behave
in her own way and resist the social construction of womanhood.
2.2.3.1 Female Domination in Nurturance
There is the possibility for the daughter to identify herself in relation with other women since symbolic father fails to know the original desire of the female
subject, which is re-attachment to maternal forms. According to Campbell, a woman is a masculine fantasy which does not represent women.
74
In Campbells point of view, th
e subject „woman is not a definition for all women, but as the political project to define womens identity. For this point of view, it opens a
chance for the women not to define themselves in the relationship with different sex-subject symbolic father but to define themselves through self-identification
with another woman.
74
Campbell, p. 90
Identification of another woman itself is rooted from mothers identification. Using Lacanians account of Oedipus Complex, Campbell affirms
the importance of mother-daughter unity during secondary identification with the symbolic father. She e
xplains that it is not purely identification to mother‟s figure that produces the daughter‟s desire for the symbolic father, but with the paternal
object desired by the mother, which is the phallus.
75
This explanation shows the complexity of mother-daughter unity during mirror stage. The inheritance of
mother‟s reflection and all of her attributes makes the construction of female subjectivity; primary and secondary identification, as a maternal identification.
76
It is emphasized by Campbell that the relation to maternal forms contributes the formation of female subjectivity through the identificatory relation to the other
women.
77
This becomes the gate for the notion of sisterhood in which the woman attempts to construct relationships with other women as the fulfillment for
maternal attachment. Since the symbolic father forbids attachment to mothers realm, the
daughter suffers the pain of pleasure for mothers love and attention. Sisterhood or female friendship becomes the solution for this suffering because, in their
relationship, the daughter can regain the lost sense of love through attention and nurturance provided by those female friends. It is proposed by Campbell that
identification with other women shapes the reproduction of mother- daughter‟s
75
Campbell, p. 92
76
Campbell, p. 92
77
Campbell, p. 92
relation because it reproduces the affective relation to the mother as another woman.
78
During the relationship process with the other women, affective relation constructs emotional relation. Affective relation, which is also supported by an
emotional tie, makes the daughter identify herself with another woman, makes the other woman become the part of the self.
79
Therefore, according to Bell Hooks, the feminist movement that universalizes their own experiences actually
marginalizes woman‟s movement.
80
Although close relation, experience, and knowledge about social oppression help
the women aware of male‟s threat, it also allows the control of other women‟s action as well.
Campbell and Hooks theories above provide significant thing about the role of female friends as the substituted mother for the daughter. Campbells
theories help this study to see the female relationship as the provider for nurturance. However, it fails to elaborate the notion of the daughters self-freedom
from unity and dependency to other womens demand. In other sides, Hooks provides an argument about the importance of the difference between women. It
helps this study to challenge the universality of womens oppressed experience. Instead of focusing a liberated movement from symbolic order, sisterhood must
also help the women to have their own self-freedom from their imaginary unity with maternal attachment.
78
Campbell, p. 96
79
Campbell, p. 95
80
Bell Hooks. Feminist Theory from Margin to Center. NY: Routledge, 2015, p. 35
2.2.3.2 Inter-subjective Dialogue and Self-Autonomy in Sisterhood
