Rozkosz i Kapitał
Pleasure and Capital

Summary/Abstract: The fever in Galleries Lafayette in a psychoanalytic and philosophical interpretation The female fake orgasm and the desire to shop Growing desire in Paris’s fashion maze Men’s judgement and women’s self-esteem The famous Galleries Lafayette in Paris lures women in with its numerous attractions. The names of well-known fashion designers kindle the female shopping trance. Katarzyna Bratkowska provocatively interprets women’s desire for attractive goods using Freud’s psychoanalytic tale about the phallus and Luce Irigaray’s reflection about women as a market product in male economy. According to Freud, “the phallus is the only privileged symbol of gender”. Therefore the orgasm, defined as the “phallic fulfilment of growing desire”, is given to men and its imitation – to their sexual partners. The defective little girl (as opposed to the boy who begins his life with an undisputable advantage) has nothing left to do, but play the game of pretending that she is a little man. If we add Luce Irigaray’s philosophy of the objectification of women in a men’s commodity exchange to the above we receive an intriguing/irritating image of femininity. Being a commodity herself, the woman desires other commodities in the same way that men desire women. In her role of a little man the woman tries to satisfy her consumer hunger in the Galleries Lafayette. Obviously she is left unsatisfied and the only result is the contribution of her small capital to the Grand Capital of Father Lafayette. The skilfully arranged maze of clothes, jewellery and cosmetics makes the woman frantic. If the contents of her purse to not meet the higher notes of her excitement she can always be comforted by the Zara boutique which is like “a brothel where you can touch all the whores and have any one of them at any time”. This is the place where she can happily fulfil her consumer craving and where an orgasm is finally achievable. According to the author, a woman who enters the Galleries Lafayette is driven by opposing forces. On the one hand she wants to become an object in a restless market and on the other she wishes to be an attractive commodity for men. Nevertheless, in the privacy of her home, in front of the mirror, she still loves dressing up in her new clothes for her own pleasure alone, just like she did when she was a little girl.

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