The Ethical Criticism On Georges Bataille’s Eroticism Theories

Georges Bataille has been called "the source of postmodern thought",with his unique insights in philosophy,economics,sociology and anthropology.Erotisme was the core category of his works,and the "consumption" and "sacredness" of érotisme inspired his later thoughts such as economics and atheism.Batalle was influenced by Hegel and Nietzsche.The thought of "subject-object relationship" in érotisme theory was the representation of Hegel’s master-slave dialectics in erotisme,and the view of good and bad came from Nietzsche’s analysis of the "whole" and "fragmented" state of human beings.Bataille maintains that érotisme is "non-planned" sex,which is different from sex for the purpose such as "reproduction" and "ejaculation".It arises from the negative turning point of animality to rationality and rationality to sanctity,and is manifested as the arrogation of taboos,with the characteristics of consumption,non-knowledge and supreme nature.Bataille’s érotisme theory applied the method of philosophy to analyze érotisme for the first time,and explained the nature of érotisme from inner feeling,which was different from the previous description of sex.However,from the perspective of ethics,Bataille’s érotisme theory has such ethical problems as gender inequality,objectification of women,violence and nihilism.As far as gender equality is concerned,Bataille’s érotisme theory does not do justice to the value of women as subjects.He divided women into "wives" and "prostitutes".Wives represented women’s labor responsibilities in housework and childbirth,while prostitutes represented women’s "érotisme function" out of marriage.Women are regarded as a channel and sacrifices to the sacred world,and the "boundary of existence" of women is opened by "violence".From the perspective of ethical care,Bataille’s gender oppression based on power structure shows the lack of care in erotic relationships.Instead of treating women as another subject,he objectificates and instrumentalizes them to achieve his transcendence.Moreover,he did not leave any space for emotion in pornography,believing that pornography is a kind of "animal intercourse".Caring ethics emphasize the need and emotional interaction of the other party,but Bataille’s pornography is a lonely,separated and one-way relationship between the host and the client.From the perspective of humanistic value,Bataille sets transcendence as the "inner experience" in the meaning of mysticism rather than the "present moment" of human life.He believed that "violence" and "death" could break through the incoherence of existence and hoped to transcend existence and reach the divine through the extreme experience of death,but the divine dimension already exceeded the category of human.Sartre believes that Bataille’s so-called "no theology" is just another mystical vocabulary instead of God,its essence is still a kind of "pantheism".Based on the ethical criticism of Bataille’s erotic theory,this paper tries to explore a possible ethical erotic theory,which puts down the desire to conquer the other and raises the other to the subject status while maintaining the identity of oneself.First of all,pornography is for his benefit rather than for the purpose of maintaining its non-utilitarian.Second,the subject needs to abandon the Bataille conquest attitude and shift the ethical focus to the other side.Third,erotic relationships tend to be what Martin Buber describes as "I-you relationships," which build emotional relationships on the basis of two agents.Fourth,the liberation of the reformed pornographic pursuit rules,the transcendence of adults themselves under the altruistic behavior logic.This paper hopes to present a harmonious and equal erotic ethic by reforming the deficiency of Bataille’s erotic theory and provide a new direction for the development of sexual ethics.