ABSTRACT
The Lacanians desire clearly to separate phallus from penis, to control the meaning of the signifier phallus, is precisely symptomatic of their desire to have the phallus, that is, their desire to be at the center of language, at its origin. And their inability to control the meaning of the word phallus is evidence of what Lacan calls symbolic castration. The linguistic categories that are understood to denote the materiality of the body are themselves troubled by a referent that is never fully or permanently resolved or contained by any given signified. If the phallus is an imaginary effect, then its structural place is no longer determined by the logical relation of mutual exclusion entailed by a heterosexist version of sexual difference in which men are said to have and women to be the phallus. If the phallus is a privileged signifier, it gains that privilege through being reiterated.
