Stereotypes and presumptions about sex have always permeated American culture and society. From taboos to perversions to fetishes, sex and everything that comes with it; relationships, marriages and everything in between have been full of misunderstandings. For much of history, human sexuality remained an unexplored topic, and many people formed their views about sex through personal experience, religious teaching, or other methods. However, as people began to become more educated about sex and sexuality, many of those ideas changed. People's minds were blank slates with no prior scientific knowledge about sex, and this allowed science in the early 20th century to define the idea of ​​sex for generations. Sigmund Freud was one of the first scientists to study sexual behavior in humans in depth, and his psychosexual analysis is the pillar on which many theories about sex and sexuality in humans were formed. Although many of his conclusions turned out to be incorrect, the influence of his work can still be seen in modern ideas about sexuality. Many of Freud's ideas about sexual deviance and abnormality can be seen in Music for Torching by AM Homes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Troubled couple Paul and Elaine have a very unhealthy marriage and an inadequate sex life, and they vent frustrations related to their situation by taking part in unusual activities and sexual encounters, unexpected thoughts and feelings. Both very self-conscious and insecure people, Paul and Elaine are constantly nervous about their performance in all aspects of life, particularly sex. They see sex as part of a norm that they must adhere to and believe that their sex must fit certain guidelines to be acceptable. Because of these high stakes and pressure to be perfect, Paul and Elaine often feel the need to suppress any abnormal feelings about their sexual experiences. Sigmund Freud's ideas of repression and inversion from Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality are exemplified in Music for Torching through Elaine's lesbian relationship with Pat and Paul's feminine tendencies. Freud argues that when events or desires are too painful or frightening to process, the human brain pushes those ideas or memories into the subconscious so that they do not disturb daily life. One of the sexual perversions that Freud claims is the most repressed is the tendency towards homosexuality. Freud makes a particular distinction regarding the abnormality of homosexual behavior because he sees the purpose of sex as having children. In a homosexual relationship you cannot have children, which is why Freud claims that it is an unnatural sexual deviance. In Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Freud states that “The normal sexual aim is regarded as the union of the genitals act known as copulation, leading to a relaxation of sexual tension and a temporary extinction of the sexual instinct” (Freud 15 ). However, in Music for Torching, Elaine has a homosexual experience with her neighbor, Pat. Although they are both married, they are both very satisfied with the experience. However, Elaine is terrified that someone will find out not that she cheated on her husband, but that she cheated on her husband with another woman. In Elaine's case, the idea of ​​having some homosexual impulse is too abnormal to process, and she instead obsesses over why the encounter occurred. He refuses to accept the fact that he may not be completely straight and instead tries tofind another reason why she enjoyed having sex with Pat. In the society in which Elaine lives, she is surrounded by heterosexuality on all sides. Her neighbors are all heterosexual couples and she finds his homosexual behavior so strange that she would be expelled by her friends and family for it. During the sexual encounter with Pat, “Everything Elaine thinks about who she is, what she is, is irrelevant” (Homes 105). Elaine based her entire identity on her sexuality; she focused entirely on the idea of ​​marriage and children, and never considered having another way of life. It is stated that “Elaine thinks this will be over in a minute, it won't really happen, it won't go too far. They're just two women exploring” (Homes 107). This is a perfect example of repression; as soon as Elaine starts to feel desire for a woman, she tries to convince herself that it's not real. When Freud describes sexual deviations, he says that “Some [inverts] accept their inversion as something in the natural course of things… and insist energetically that the inversion is as legitimate as the normal attitude; others rebel against their inversion and feel it as a pathological compulsion” (Freud 3). Elaine is definitely rebelling against his reversal. She can't help but enjoy the experience with Pat, but she can't accept that it might actually be part of her identity as a person. After her encounter with Pat, Elaine becomes increasingly fearful and anxious. She thinks “did this really happen? Has Pat done this before? Does Pat think it was all Elaine's fault? And why does Elaine think about guilt? Why is she blaming herself?" (Houses 110). As soon as the sex ends, Elaine tries to justify it in her mind, to find some reason beyond the fact that she is attracted to women. For Elaine, a heterosexual existence is the key to her lifestyle. This reflects one of Freud's observations on homosexuality and/or degeneration, which states that in degenerates "several serious deviations from normality are found together, and the capacity for efficient functioning and survival appears to be seriously impaired." (Freud 4) The idea of ​​homosexuality as something shameful to be rejected is an idea that Elaine has taken to heart. She worries that having sex with Elaine will ruin her identity and prove that she is a bad wife, mother, and member of wealthy society.To deal with this realization, he pushes his feelings and memories about Pat into the recesses of his mind in a failed attempt to tame his desire.Secondly there is the idea of ​​Paolo's feminine tendencies. Although he often tries to act like the man of the house, Paul often faces bouts of fear and insecurity related to his sense of masculinity. During their stay with Pat and George, Paul shaves his legs and wears a nightgown, and when Elaine asks him about it he says "I feel cute" (Houses 56). Paul often challenges masculine concepts in his private life with Elaine, yet he still feels the need to dominate her and impose his masculine stature. According to Freud, one explanation for Paul's behavior could be that he does not find satisfaction in his current sexual relationship with Elaine, so he uses other tactics to try to find satisfaction. Freud states that “a certain degree of fetishism is therefore usually present in normal love, especially in those phases of it in which the normal sexual aim seems unattainable or its fulfillment prevented” (Freud 20). Perhaps Paul is acting more feminine to connect with Elaine, who is struggling with her attraction to women. While this is possible according to Freud, there are other aspects of Paul's character that suggest that his femininity is more than just a phase caused by his marriage. He admits that he isstill fond of his college roommate with whom he had homosexual relationships, but he himself would never admit to being anything but straight. To keep up appearances, Paul is forced to deny the feminine aspects of himself that we see. emerge throughout the novel. In this way Homes' interpretation of the characters might differ from Freud's. While Freud promoted the idea of ​​penis envy (a woman is jealous of men due to the phallic nature of the male genitalia that she will never be able to obtain it), Homes seems to imply that Paul desires a more feminine form. By doing traditionally feminine things like shaving her legs and arms, she shows the fact that there is a definite feminine side to her personality. While Freud makes no mention of a male alternative to penis envy, the idea that men have womb envy was proposed by psychiatrist Karen Horney. She claims that “When one begins, as I have done, to analyze men after a fairly long experience in analyzing women, one receives a very surprising impression of the intensity of this envy of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood” (Horney 1967, Horrocks 82 ), and this could be an explanation for Paul's actions. Both Paul and Elaine are struggling to fulfill their roles in their home and marriage, and one reason Paul feels dissatisfied as a father figure and male presence may be because he has an inherent jealousy towards women but represses it to support his image as a man. . From his psychoanalysis, Freud usually does not criticize the flaws of men as he does with women, as he considers the male form to be more ideal and desired. Although a woman may be jealous of a man's body, according to Freud's ideas a man would never wish to be a woman. Homes challenges this idea by presenting Paul as even more feminine than Elaine in many ways. While Elaine works well and is quite balanced during the crisis at the end of the novel, Paul is frantic and distraught; something a traditionally virile character wouldn't show. Instead of being strong and stoic, he erupts into hysterics as his wife takes on the role of protector and defender. The fact that Freud does not include this position on a change in masculinity shows the failures of his theories and research. Although it appears that Paul is neither gay nor straight, Freud probably would not have classified him as bisexual, as Freud was critical of the idea, referring to "a female brain in a male body" as "expression in its crudest form ". form” (Freud 8). Instead of working from an objective and purely scientific point of view, Freud drew on his own experiences and behaviors for his research, which often led him to draw conclusions about sexuality that were not applicable to everyone. Homes shows the character of Paul in a way that Freud never imagined, and in this way Homes' fictional text teaches the reader more about male sexuality than Freud's scientific text. While Freud was right that Paul exhibited repression, Freud would likely have associated Paul's actions with something other than inherent femininity or womb envy. Although Freud's work can be used to analyze the behavior of real people, it is important to remember that his research was imperfect, as Homes shows a crucial flaw in his analysis of male sexual desire. Both Freud and Homes suggest different reasons and motivations for Paul and Elaine's actions. While both characters struggle with their homosexual tendencies and repress unwanted impulses, Freud and Homes provide different reasons as to why the character chose to.