"The Uncanny" in Relation to Gender/Animals

Freud defines "heimlich" as home/familiar and strange/alien, emphasizing the paradoxical nature of the word. The female body is also consistently viewed as a paradox. Individuals experience "uncanny" sensations when something secret or once familiar is brought into the open - when female sexuality is presented in a forum other than for male consumption, society is horrified. Freud tries to rationalize this idea by explaining that female genitals trigger a memory of one's mother's womb/genitals: "... it occurs when a boy, who has hitherto been unwilling to believe the threat of castration, catches sight of the female genitals ... essentially those of his mother" (Freud, 84). He further explains that what is horrible about female genitals is that they are not phallic. Those without penises are cast as "other," automatically subordinated and viewed as unnatural. Medusa's head is so significantly frightening, largely in part because her hair (frequently represented in the form of snakes) "replace(s) the penis, the absence of which is the cause of the horror" (Freud, 85). Freud consistently reiterates that things that strike us as "uncanny" are solely repressed childhood fears that pop up again ("the return of the repressed"). One can examine a doll to further understand the gendered nature of the term. Many children (primarily females) frequent dolls as playthings, but many of these individuals possess terror that their dolls have the potential to come to life. Regularly, children have no distinction between fantasy and real life and maintain the mindset that the inanimate has the potential to become animate. Females are regularly defined/marked by their genitals - when females, in any context, exist without the body parts that mark them as "othered," (i.e. nipples, reproductive organs), the viewer is made to experience an uncanny sensation. This can be emphasized by the Nicki Minaj video we watched in class yesterday - we were made to feel uncomfortable upon viewing the lifelike "dolls," because they were not presented in the gendered fashion that society requires. We did not know how to interpret a being without genital signification. Perhaps, the internalization of the female reproductive organs is what strikes us as uncertain. Female sexuality is made to be invisible, thus prohibited. The story of Medusa's head is essentially so terrifying, because it reinforces the notion that if a woman possesses power as Medusa did, she must be decapitated.

Additionally, in class yesterday, I noticed various representations of animals being construed as uncanny. Animals who embody any human characteristics (such as the cat with human teeth and/or eyes?) make us, as humans, slightly freak out. We like to view ourselves as being far removed from different species, when in reality, we share a lot of the same DNA with some species (namely chimpanzees, bonobos, etc.) Animals are viewed as part of nature, and when nature takes on an active, participatory role (as in the "Birds" clip), humans have to reconsider the capabilities of species other than our own. My main point is that when anything in society, be it females or non-human animals, ventures (even if only slightly) into an unordinary realm, we experience absolute distress and are made to feel "uncanny."