Page 164 - Decoding Culture

G E N D E R ED SUB E C TS, WOMEN'S TEXTS 157
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This issue of gendered pleasure is the second of my four
themes. If women are seen to respond positively to certain cul­
tural forms, such as soap opera and romances, what is it about
those forms which makes them gender specific in their appeal?
Much of the 1980s literature revolves around this question, and
two kinds of answers are proposed. One works by identifying par­
ticular features of the texts under consideration which, by common
consent, might be expected to appeal to women. The other pushes
the question somewhat further, advancing general theories as to
why the pleasures provided should be characteristically female.
Theoretically, of course, the latter is essential to the former -
'common consent' on what constitutes women's pleasure is always
in need of explanation and theorizing - and much-remarked textual
features (for example strong female characters in soap opera) only
appear to have self-evident gender appeal because of 'common­
sense' assumptions we make about gendered pleasure.
Furthermore, without such theorization there is always a risk of
circularity, of presupposing that because some form of culture is
seen as a 'women's genre' it necessarily caters to gender-specific
needs and desires.
I shall not examine theories of gendered pleasure in any detail
here. The important thing to note for present purposes is that,
whatever the specifics of these theories, they invariably postulate
a distinctive gendered identity (my third theme) from which
emerge the needs, tastes and desires in which pleasure is
grounded. In the older strong ideology models, gender identity is
itself a product of patriarchal ideology, such that culture both
forms women's needs and then goes on to satisfy them. In this
way patriarchal society finds its own means to preserve the status
quo. But where the constraints of traditional ideology models are
loosened - as they are increasingly in feminist cultural studies -
other sources are posed for the formation of gendered identity.

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