Lesbian Desire in Plato's Symposium: Reading Alia Mamdouh

Author: Kelly Boyce

"In a very thoughtful and insightful essay, Elizabeth Grosz, a theorist focusing on lesbian desire, provides a survey of the trajectories of desire-as-lack theories and affirming-desire theories. In her conclusion, she posits that lesbian desire as such does not fit into desire-as-lack theory and proposes affirming-desire theory, notably that of Gilles Deleuze, as the model to which theorists of lesbian desire should aspire. However, she places Plato's ideas of desire firmly on the side of desire-as-lack without acknowledging that affirming-desire is a large part of Plato's discourse, and without recognizing that lack, or yearning, is an important part of lesbian desire."