What is "penis envy"

n. (context psychoanalysis English) The alleged unconscious desire of a woman to possess a penis.

n. (psychoanalysis) a female's presumed envy of the male's penis; said to explain femininity

Penis Envy, released in 1981, was the third LP by the anarchist punk band Crass.

Named as a reference to some of Freud's ideas concerning sexuality, this release marked something of a departure from the somewhat 'macho', 'hardcore punk' image that The Feeding of the 5000 and its follow up, Stations of the Crass, had to some extent given the group, for it featured more obviously complex musical arrangements, as well as exclusively female vocals by Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre (although Steve Ignorant remained a group member and is credited on the record sleeve as "not on this recording"). The album addressed feminist issues and once again attacked the institutions of 'the system' such as marriage and sexual repression.

One track, not actually listed on the album cover, was a deliberately saccharine (described in fact by the band themselves as "'pure, unadulterated shit") parody of a " middle of the road" love song entitled "Our Wedding". This was given away as a flexi disc with a teenage girl's romance magazine called Loving after having been offered it by an organisation calling itself Creative Recording And Sound Services (note the initials). A minor tabloid furore erupted once the hoax was revealed, with the News of the World going so far as to state that the album's title was "too obscene to print". (A leaflet giving the background to this Situationist-style prank was subsequently issued by the band). Now considered a rarity, the original flexi-disc fetches high prices on the collectors' market.

The album was banned by the retailer HMV. During the mid-1980s, Greater Manchester Police under the direction of James Anderton seized copies along with other records by Crass and the Dead Kennedys, from Eastern Bloc record shop. Frank Schofield was charged with displaying "obscene articles for publication for gain". The band Flux of Pink Indians, its two record labels and its publishing company were also charged under the Obscene Publications Act. The judge ruled against Crass in the ensuing court case, although this decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal, apart from the lyrics to one song, "Bata Motel". The heavy costs incurred by this episode were a contributing factor in Crass deciding to disband.

The Crassical Collection version of this release, including new artwork by Gee Vaucher, remastered sound, liner notes by Eve Libertine and Penny Rimbaud and bonus material, was released in November 2010.

Penis envy is a stage theorized by Sigmund Freud regarding female psychosexual development, in which female adolescents experience anxiety upon realization that they do not have a penis. Freud considered this realization a defining moment in a series of transitions toward a mature female sexuality and gender identity. In Freudian theory, the penis envy stage begins the transition from an attachment to the mother to competition with the mother for the attention, recognition and affection of the father. The parallel reaction of a boy's realization that women do not have a penis is castration anxiety.

Freud's theories regarding psychosexual development, and in particular the phallic stage, were criticized and refined by other psychoanalysts, such as Karen Horney, Otto Fenichel, Ernest Jones, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, Juliet Mitchell, Clara Thompson.

Feminists argue that Freud's developmental theory is heteronormative and denies women a mature sexuality independent of men and for privileging the vagina over the clitoris as the center of women's sexuality. Freud's sociosexual theory has additionally come under criticism from feminists for privileging heterosexual sexual activity and penile penetration in defining women's "mature state of sexuality". Counter-critics have responded that feminists misunderstand penis envy, which was not intended by Freud to refer literally to the envy of the male physical penis but to be understood as an abstract, evolving force in psychosexual development. Penis envy is theorized as a discrete event and reoccurring force in psychosexual development, not as "envy of the penis," but is sometimes used inexactly in contemporary culture to refer to women who are presumed to wish they were men.