ABSTRACT
Jane Gallop argues that feminists "must undo the vicious circle by which the desire for the father's desire causes her to submit to the father's law." Feminist responses to the patriarchal father embody a contradictory logic of desire. The father figure who has seemingly been the focus of so much feminist analysis and critique is thus nowhere to be found. Feminism locates or disavows "other" fathers—no one's father in particular. The father temporarily from those binary relations of antagonism and to relocate him together with the daughter in spaces that is potentially pleasurable. When feminists take on the task of analyzing specific fathers, they often choose the fathers of fictional representation. Fathers on television, in film, and in literature have received much more critical attention than living, nonfictional fathers. In the face of the symbolic father, Thomas Laqueur asserts his existence as a living father.
