Abstract
For Lacan, sexuation—of course, a term we do not have in English, as it is not really gender as such and has nothing to do with the body—is a matter above all of choice—the choice to “be”—the author says this with a certain trepidation, but then again does this not have to do with the semblant—to identify oneself as a man or to be a woman. A speaking being might situate itself as a himself or a herself. This choice—or situation of the speaking being—is a choice related to how the speaking being confronts the phallic function, which Lacan also terms the father function. The dimension of perversion for the male is linked in some sense to the concept of the Real Father. The male jouissance, thus, is thoroughly phallic—masturbatory, Lacan will comment on a little later. The male holds onto this phallic jouissance, idiotic, the jouissance of the One, without an Other.