from NWSA Journal Volume 8, Number 3
"His Wife Seized His Prize and Cut it to Size": Folk and Popular Commentary on Lorena Bobbitt
LINDA PERSHING
State University of New York at Albany
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John Bobbitt was never a loner.
In fact, he was known as a roamer.
His wife seized his prize
And cut it to size.
Now John is his own organ donor.--Limerick circulated during 1993-94
In January 1994, the trial of Lorena Bobbitt, who was charged with the "malicious wounding" of her husband, captured the attention of the public in the United States and abroad. The case received extensive media coverage, much more than had the earlier trial of John Wayne Bobbitt, who was accused and acquitted of the rape (marital sexual assault) of his wife. Lorena Bobbitt was in the limelight not because she broke the law but because she violated a cultural taboo: she cut off her husband's penis. The incident and subsequent media attention became the subject of intense national debate. It also sparked a flurry of jokes, limericks, urban legends, T-shirt slogans, and advertising gimmicks. Bobbitt-related discussions filtered into everyday conversations, office jokes, and electronic mail networks. Children circulated their own Bobbitt folklore.1 For months, nationally known stand-up comedians and television talk show hosts performed extensive repertoires of Bobbitt jokes, while members of the general public created new lyrics to popular melodies (e.g., "The Ballad of the Bobbitt Hillbillies" sung to the Beverly Hillbillies theme song).Folklore--which may be defined as informal or traditional communication that arises out of a shared aesthetic and is transmitted through dynamic processes of social interaction--often provides a socially acceptable way for people to communicate their thoughts, feelings, and responses to issues of the day. Because folklore emanates from people's everyday expressive behavior and is often spontaneous in nature, it offers a window to ideas, values, and concerns not always articulated in official or "high" culture. People use folklore to educate or enculturate one another about their sense of identity, social values, and views of the world, and the study of folk expression can contribute valuable insights about the political aspects of social and cultural life. This essay offers an analysis of Bobbitt-related folklore (or Bobbitt-lore, as I call it) and the cultural politics embedded in expressive responses to the Bobbitt cases. My goal is to discern the underlying messages conveyed by different types of Bobbitt-humor and to demonstrate how Bobbitt-lore provided diverse groups of people with a vehicle for commenting on identity politics and social relations as they are defined by ethnic, class, and gender differences.
First, some background information: On the evening of 23 June 1993, John Bobbitt came home to his apartment in Prince William, Virginia, after a night of barhopping.2 His wife Lorena testified that he was drunk, insisted they have sex against her will, raped her, and then went to sleep. John's account differed. At various times, he said that they had not had sex that evening, that he could not recall if they had had sex, that Lorena had tried to initiate sex but he had been too tired, that they had had sex but he had slept through it, and that the sex had been consensual. Afterward, Lorena got out of bed and went to the kitchen for a glass of water. A knife that was lying by the sink caught her eye. She picked it up, stared at it awhile, and memories of past abuse raced through herhead. She recalled, "I remember[ed] many things. I remember[ed] the first time he raped me. I remember[ed] the put-downs that he told me. . . . I remember[ed] the first time he forced me to have anal sex, the bad things he said. I remember[ed] the abortion. I remember[ed] everything." Lorena went back to the bedroom where John was sleeping, pulled down the sheets, and cut off his penis.
She then left the house, got into her car, and drove away. She said that while she was driving, she looked down and was horrified to see the severed penis still in her hand. She threw it out the car window into a nearby field. Soon afterward, she called police and told them where to find it. Surgeons managed to reattach John Bobbitt's penis in an operation that lasted nearly ten hours. If convicted of the class-three felony offense, Lorena Bobbitt faced a fine of up to $100,000 and a mandatory prison term of five to twenty years. Following nine days of testimony, the jury (seven women, five men) found Lorena Bobbitt not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. She was held in custody at a mental institution in order to undergo psychiatric observation. A month later, psychiatrists determined that she posed no threat to herself or others and recommended that she be released to receive ongoing outpatient treatment.3
The case became legendary almost overnight. As one observer put it, "not since Lizzie Borden have a woman and her cutlery received so much attention" (Shales G1). By late 1993 and early 1994, jokes and stories about the Bobbitts flourished. Did you hear the one about Lorena Bobbitt being released on her own recognizance while awaiting trial? The judge ruled that Lorena could go home for the Christmas holidays, but only on the condition that she didn't hang any balls on the Christmas tree. On Halloween 1993, near Washington, D.C., a group of women went trick-or-treating dressed up in Lorena look-alike wigs and carrying big wooden knives (Lowther 35). There were humorous claims that Lorena Bobbitt had signed advertising contracts with the makers of Ginsu knives and Weedwackers or that John Bobbitt had become a spokesperson for Peterbilt Trucks and Snap-on Tools. At a take-out restaurant, a neighbor of mine overheard one man asking another whether he wanted a "Bobbitt" or a full-sized submarine sandwich. Meanwhile, a radio disc jockey offered Slice soda and cocktail wienies with ketchup from his on-site broadcasting booth near the Manassas, Virginia, courthouse, while vendors sold buttons that read "Lorena Bobbitt for Surgeon General" (Kaplan 52; Leiby B1).
Professional comedians were quick to add their own commentary. Bobbitt jokes made David Letterman's "Top Ten List" on several occasions.4 The January 1994 "Comic Relief VI" television special on HBO became a virtual circus of Bobbitt satire. Comedian Robin Williams began with this promotion: "I know that many of you . . . paid forty dollars to see John Wayne Bobbitt's penis on television [on Howard Stern's 1993 New Year's Eve pay-per-view special], but for only thirty dollars you can get a Comic Relief T-shirt that has better stitching and won't shrink in cold water!" Meeting the challenge, Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal--along with a dozen other celebrities--tried to outdo one another with Bobbitt-related comedy routines. In the end, Williams stole the show by enacting a bizarre scene in which a severed penis took on a life of its own, fell into a toxic waste dump, mutated to a height of fifty feet, and then tried to screw New York's Holland Tunnel.
Journalists immediately entered the fray, providing daily coverage of Bobbitt-related events as well as shaping and amplifying public perceptions of the case. Vanity Fair, the only magazine to get a personal interview with Lorena Bobbitt, called her a "national folk heroine" (Masters 168), while the 27 December issue of People magazine named Lorena Bobbitt one of the twenty-five most intriguing people of 1993. By January 1994, reporters had written approximately 1,300,000 column inches about the Bobbitts ("Unkindest Cut" 14). Lorena's trial made the front page of major newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post, and there were televised news reports each evening on the NBC and ABC television networks (CBS executives decided not to cover Lorena's trial until it was over, summarizing it after the fact). The Court TV Network and CNN provided live coverage of the trial to millions of people across the country.5 A poll conducted by Newsweek revealed that 60 percent of the U.S. population followed the case, "both men and women equally" (Kaplan 52). When, rather than Lorena Bobbitt's trial, CNN chose to air President Clinton's announcement of an agreement to destroy 1,800 nuclear warheads on Ukrainian soil, the station received hundreds of phone calls from viewers who objected to their decision ("Clinton" C4).
Simultaneously, Bobbitt language began appearing in everyday conversations. The humorous implications of the name itself (as if Bobbitt weren't enough--did his given names have to be John Wayne?), morbid fascination with the idea of a woman severing a man's penis, and popular interpretation of Lorena's act as an assault on male authority--all ignited the public imagination and contributed to the proliferation of Bobbitt language and wordplay. Some of it seemed fairly neutral: Virginia police joked that the dog used to track down the wayward penis had been a cocker spaniel (Leonard 617), and in Miami's Little Havana, customers began ordering "Lorenas" instead of cortaditos, black coffee "cut" with a bit of milk (Roman B1). Most Bobbitt wordplay had more of an edge to it, however, denigrating either John or Lorena in some way, as did this riddle: What's the difference between a used car salesman and Lorena Bobbitt? Answer: A used car salesman is a slick pricer (electronic mail from Chris Baldwin, 26 Jan. 1994). Journalists went wild creating headlines for their articles, among them "Forrest Stump" (an interview with John Bobbitt in Gentleman's Quarterly), "Phallus Interruptus" (Nation), "Severance Pay" (People), "The Unkindest Cut of All" (U.S. News and World Report), and "Grin and Bobbitt" (Village Voice).6 Predictably, the name Bobbitt came to refer to a penis or to any object that had been severed or separated, and men were warned about "Bobbittectomies" or being "Bobbittized" (see Algeo and Algeo 295-96).7
As Bobbitt jokes became a national pastime, some people began to wonder about the meaning of the phenomenon. In a January 1994 article for Maclean's magazine, for example, Allan Fotheringham asked, "What's going on here? Why is mutilation such a source of humor? The press and late-night comedians have never had so much fun." Perhaps, he suggested, people responded to the Bobbitt cases with humor because "the organ in question is so inherently goofy looking" (72). While amusing, Fotheringham's analysis ignored some deeper issues. Although both men and women circulated Bobbitt-lore, there was often a difference in the messages they communicated. Some men told jokes that belittled Lorena Bobbitt's testimony, as did the Tonight Show host Jay Leno in his 18 January 1994 opening monologue: "Lorena Bobbitt stated that she couldn't remember the night she was raped. She couldn't remember! Hey, and they get mad at us when we forget a wedding anniversary!" Women, in turn, responded with their own gender commentary: What do you call a guy who's lost 90 percent of his intelligence? Answer: John Wayne Bobbitt. The reactions of people who were deeply disturbed by the creation and circulation of Bobbitt humor--particularly those who were personally offended by the idea of cutting off a man's penis and those who were sensitive to the issue of violence against women--demonstrated that Bobbitt-lore was seldom neutral or apolitical.8 During the last three decades, the study of humor has commanded the attention of feminist scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. These studies indicate that people often use jokes to express ideas they are unable or unwilling to state more overtly. Humor can help maintain the status quo through the comic devaluation and satirization of cultural identities, behaviors, or ways of thinking. It can also undermine the existing social order by calling it into question, thereby suggesting alternative social and political configurations. For many people, Lorena Bobbitt and John Bobbitt became cultural icons, symbolic of much more than their individual experiences. Through Bobbitt-related humor and folklore, people reified, explored, and criticized social relations between men and women as well as an array of other problems.
Issues of Ethnicity
Claims and counter-claims about ethnic relations and stereotypes were among the messages conveyed in Bobbitt-lore.
Of the hundreds of jokes and stories I collected for this essay, none mentioned John Bobbitt's racial or ethnic heritage, thereby reinforcing the assumption that whiteness is the unspoken American norm. However, some Bobbitt commentary focused on Lorena's identity as a Latina and first-generation immigrant.
In some jokes Lorena, and by inference all Latinas, was portrayed as emotional, irrational, unpredictable, inept, or stupid. Camille Paglia called Lorena "a Latin firecracker" (42), while members of the general public satirized her linguistic heritage in jokes like this one, which offered a clumsy pun about Lorena's maiden name, Lorena Gallo: "Lorena's maiden name is 'Gallo,' which is Spanish for 'cock.' And in one of the Ecuadorian native tongues, the name 'Lorena' means 'young, dumb woman who will one day, after her husband rapes her, stumble into the kitchen, grab the first sharp object she finds, go back into the bedroom, and cut off her husband's' " (electronic mail from Chris Baldwin, 26 Jan. 1994). In the "Comic Relief VI" television special, stand-up comedian Paul Rodriguez warned the audience that Latinas are castrating Furies: "Remember that Lorena Bobbitt is a Latina. Latina women will sever your penis! They will!" Attempting to counter this stereotype by appealing to another--the image of the pious religious practitioner--Lorena's defense attorneys "packaged" her as a demure and devout Catholic, whose innocence and purity were symbolized by the white silk blouse and ever-visible crucifix on the necklace she wore in the courtroom (Goldstein 8).
Some Ecuadorians and other Latinas/os, however, rejected these dichotomous representations and offered counterreadings of the ethnic subtext of the Bobbitt cases. When a rally to support Lorena was suggested during a local Spanish-language radio talk show on Radio Borinquen (WILC 900 AM), calls flooded the station from people who wanted to get involved. Ninea Guiterrez, a thirty-year-old Virginia resident who immigrated from Mexico, told reporters that she joined a demonstration in Manassas because "I think it's important for Lorena to see that her people are supporting her, and that we understand what made her do that." According to Lorena, John repeatedly ridiculed her for being too small, too skinny, and too "Spanish-looking"; several of the Latinas at the courthouse said that they had similar stories to tell about their own abuse by lovers and husbands (Margolick, "Wife Says" A7). Some mentioned that although they did not necessarily condone Lorena's actions, they understood her desperation and wanted to champion her cause because she was Latina (Sanchez B3). Cary de León, coordinator of services for battered women in Dade County, Florida, told a reporter for El Nuevo Herald that she hoped Lorena Bobbitt's acquittal would encourage women, especially Latinas, to speak up about their own experiences with domestic violence (Santana B1). For these women, Lorena became a signifier for Latinas in general and for the devaluation and gender-related abuse they experience as a result of their ethnicity, and for some Latinas, she became a liberating symbol of their desire to contest and reformulate Latina identity and gender relations within Latin American communities.
A group of feminists in Ecuador reacted dramatically. Interpreting Lorena's trial as an example of patriarchal denial of violence against women and, in a larger sense, imperialist U.S. policies (because Lorena faced deportation if found guilty), the National Feminist Association of Ecuador called several news organizations in Quito, threatening that they would castrate one hundred American men living in Ecuador if Lorena Bobbitt went to prison (Achenbach and Lieby D7). Ecuadorian journalist Maria Gómez traveled to Manassas to cover the trial. In sharing her reactions to the incident, she reportedly commented, "Sometimes women have to take the law into their own hands. What she did was brave" (Leiby 8). For these Latinas, Lorena's trial became not only an example of men's violence against women but also, in a broader sense, a "tale of marital colonialism" against the people of Latin America (Goldstein 8).
While some Latinos took Lorena's action and her acquittal as a direct affront to their masculinity (see "Lorena Bobbitt no es" 8 and Martínez 21), there were also Latinos who demonstrated public support for Lorena Bobbitt, often emphasizing shared ethnicity over gender differences. A dozen Latino cabdrivers volunteered their services in transporting people to the site of her trial for free. In below-freezing weather, approximately two hundred people of Latin American descent, many of them men, kept a vigil outside the Manassas courtroom, cheering for Lorena when she entered or left the courthouse and carrying Ecuadorian flags and signs with slogans like "Lorena, estámos contigo" (Lorena, we are with you; Miller and Tousignant, "Just So" A12; Sanchez B3).
Class Commentary
Class issues also shaped both the lives of Lorena and John and the incident that made them famous. Lorena came to the United States aspiring to be the "model immigrant." When she was a child, her family moved from Ecuador to Venezuela in pursuit of greater prosperity. There her father worked as a dental technician (none of my sources say whether her mother worked outside the home), and the family lived what Lorena described as a lower-middle-class existence (Masters 172). In 1986, Lorena moved to the United States on a student visa. She was delighted with the accessibility of consumer goods and the affluence she saw around her. Her first impression of the United States was that "everything was just pink and beautiful. . . . [D]on't get me wrong," she continued, "[in Venezuela] we do have McDonalds. We do have Pizza Hut. We do have hotels and beautiful shopping malls. But for some reason this was my dream in the back of my head. I said to myself, 'Oh my God, this is the place I want to be'" (Masters 172). She enrolled in English-language classes and took a job as a nanny and later as a manicurist at the Nail Sculptor salon in Prince William, Virginia.It did not take long for Lorena to become disillusioned with the American Dream. When John and Lorena got married in June 1989, they had very little money and lived in a studio apartment with minimal furniture. Eventually they moved into a two-bedroom apartment and then bought a house in 1990. According to Lorena, the house was more than they could afford, especially since John spent most of his income buying luxury items (a satellite dish, computer, and two cars) and barhopping with friends, often stealing money from her purse to cover his expenses. At the time of the incident, Lorena worked ten hours a day, six days a week; her pretax income was about $17,000 a year (Masters 209). After John got out of the Marines on 1 January 1991, he found and lost several different low-paying jobs (Lorena said nineteen, John's lawyers said six). One journalist noted that John Bobbitt's attitude toward money was much like his attitude toward sex: "getting and spending, filching and borrowing--was the dominant motif" (Berger 12).
The debts mounted, the bank foreclosed on their mortgage, they moved into an apartment, and Lorena and John argued constantly about their finances. When things got tight, Lorena embezzled money from her employer and shoplifted dresses from Nordstrom's department store (Masters 209). Mirroring the consumer culture in which they were immersed, John and Lorena tried to buy status and happiness through products and goods they could not afford. When Lorena left in a daze after slicing off John's penis, she took a Gameboy and a hundred dollars with her rather than her shoes (Berger 12). It is noteworthy that class-related commentary about Lorena and John's financial situation was absent in the jokes and stories I heard, even though the particulars of the case (satellite dish, Gameboy, and all) offered ample opportunity for satire. I can only speculate that this omission occurred because class differences are so often avoided, naturalized, or otherwise rendered invisible in U.S. culture. The media focused much more attention on issues of gender and, secondarily, ethnicity but had little to say about the pressures that Lorena and John faced as working-class people who fought with one another about their limited financial resources, rather than questioning the larger economic system. Nevertheless, class issues did affect the public reaction to Lorena's trial. Barbara Ehrenreich ("Feminism") and Katha Pollitt noted that while working-class women often supported Lorena, well-known feminist intellectuals and activists were more reluctant to do so. According to Pollitt those who openly expressed their feelings of solidarity with Lorena were women who had to cope on a daily basis with "female-ghetto jobs, too much housework, too little respect, too many men like John Bobbitt" (147-48). She commented that among feminist acquaintances who were writers, academics, and lawyers, "the closest anyone would come to defending Lorena was to suggest that while, mind you, not condoning in any way slicing a male even as despicable as John Bobbitt . . . , you could sort of . . . maybe . . . see how she might have flipped out" (147).
In fact, nationally recognized, middle- and upper-class women rarely spoke out in Lorena's defense. For example, Susan Estrich (University of Southern California law professor and campaign manager for Michael Dukakis in 1988) commented:
Lorena Bobbitt is a criminal, not a feminist heroine. Those feminists who have flocked to her defense have done a disservice not only to the cause of feminism, but more important, to the real victims of battered wives' syndrome--the millions of women who are beaten by their husbands and do not respond by assaults on their organs. They are the women who deserve sympathy and attention, and support from the criminal justice system--not Lorena Bobbitt. (E3)
Rita J. Simon and Cathy Young, president and vice president of the Women's Freedom Network in Washington, D.C., wrote in a New York Times letter to the editor:
not all women gloat because a woman mutilated the genitals of her sleeping husband and got away with it. We all sympathize with battered women. While spouse abuse should be taken seriously, it should not be an excuse for legalized revenge. . . . If feminism means equal rights and equal responsibilities, Mrs. Bobbitt's acquittal is not a victory for feminism. The [jury's] decision trivializes female violence, infantilizes women and fuels hostility between the sexes." (A22)
Naomi Wolf, who has been outspoken in her belief that feminists have too often glorified the victimization of women, cautioned against envisioning Lorena Bobbitt as a hero by noting, "Women are just as capable of mayhem and sadism and cruelty as men. But it's just not acceptable to support violence" (Gleick et al. 96).9 Observing this trend, Pollitt suggests, and I agree, that
the current attack on "victim feminism" is partly a class phenomenon, a kind of status anxiety. It represents the wish of educated female professionals to distance themselves from stereotypes of women as passive, dependent, helpless, and irrational. From this point of view, women like Lorena, if not punished, taint all women. (148)Those who took this position focused on Lorena's reactions rather than on John's violence, contending that all she had to do to stop the violence was leave the violent relationship. Within this debate, there was no discussion of the economic and class-related factors that make battered women feel desperate or prevent them from leaving their abusers. Little attention was given to John's power to affect Lorena's livelihood: her immigration status depended on him, and his habit of stealing her earnings and his extravagant spending put economic self-sufficiency beyond her reach.10
The Politics of Gender: Phallocentric Reactions and the Reassertion of Male Dominance
Gender issues were always in the foreground in Bobbitt-lore. Although even superficial survey data indicated otherwise, some authors claimed that reactions to the Bobbitt trials were bifurcated along gender lines: men sided with John and women with Lorena.11 Writers for People magazine, for example, contrasted the Bobbitt cases to the earlier trials of Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco, noting, "Also like the Amy and Joey affair, their conflict seems to have become a symbolic skirmish in the war between the sexes. Even the endless torrent of jokes affects men and women differently" (Gleick et al. 94). More insightful authors noted that in its own perverse way, public expression about the Bobbitts usually ended up objectifying the penis and reinforcing stereotypes about castrating females and emasculated males (see Goldstein 8). If nothing else, there was widespread recognition that casual discussion of sexual activity and saying the word "penis" in public settings became more permissible as a result of the incident.12 Suddenly reporters and newscasters were writing and talking about penises, anal intercourse, and whether or not a woman is entitled to an orgasm. Journalist William Safire wrote that 13 July 1993 would "be remembered as the day the word penis appeared in 30-point type in the New York Times," noting that before the Bobbitt trials, the word "vagina" was acceptable for journalists, but "penis" had to be replaced by "male sex organ" (F10). Comedian Whoopi Goldberg bemoaned the fact that in light of the Bobbitt, Buttafuoco, and Menendez trials, 1994 should have been named "the Year of the Dick."13 Newsweek writer Cynthia Heimel observed that in making penis jokes about the Bobbitts, many male comedians seemed like a group of sniggering twelve-year-olds. Howard Stern's 1993 New Year's Eve television special typified this behavior by featuring John Bobbitt on stage with a ten-foot-tall rendition of a penis, surrounded by a group of virtually naked women (Heimel 59).The increased public discussion of the penis had a dual effect. On the one hand, as Judy Mann observed, it signified a "big step in achieving a balance of power between men and women. The penis is no longer sacred, off-limits, spoken of only in hushed tones as it if were a religious icon. We can now talk about it openly" (E3). This was a significant development given the fact, as Maxine Sheets-Johnstone noted, that the penis "is never made public, never put on the measuring line in the same way that female body parts are put on the measuring line. On the contrary, a penis remains shrouded in mystery. It is protected, hidden from sight" (69).14
However, public discussion of the penis in the aftermath of the Bobbitt case also reified men by once again fetishizing their sexual organs and linking them to male identity, power, and aggression. As one writer noted, "John Wayne Bobbitt has become evangelical in the cause not only of his penis but of the penis" (Junod 234). When John commented to his publicity manager Aaron Gordon that after the trials were over, he would be ready to fall in love again, Gordon retorted, "You are in love, John--with your penis," commenting under his breath, "his whole life revolves around his dick" (Junod 234). John's fascination and obsession with his own sexual organ resonated with other men. Dale Stephanos, a nationally syndicated political cartoonist, captured this idea in his depiction of a male broadcaster who gets a thrill from his news report: "And now, a Bobbitt update . . . penis penis penis penis, and furthermore, penis penis penis. . . ." Behind the television camera, the technician reacts: "I think he's starting to enjoy this!" (Stephanos 5).
Suddenly, promotion of the phallus and the centrality of the penis was not only allowable but also encouraged in popular culture. Not all men, however, celebrated this trend. Noting that the Bobbitt trials had provided the opportunity for some men to reclaim a notion of sexuality that objectifies both men and women, one man lamented,
It is men who have cut ourselves off from our own penises by fetishizing them as phalluses, emblems of male power over women. We have severed our bodies from our minds and forfeited our emotional life by making sex a power game. . . . It is from the phallus, the power-symbol . . . that men must cut ourselves loose. ("International" 4)According to anthropologist Mary Douglas (Natural Symbols; Purity) symbols of group conflict frequently take forms that emphasize the human body. Body parts often become signifiers for whole bodies, and particular bodies become signifiers for groups. Within this conceptual framework, attacks on a single body part or individual may be perceived as an affront to a group that shares a sense of common identity. In the Bobbitt case, Lorena's attack on John was read as women's attack on men more generally, and severing his penis became a symbolic gesture representing women's desire to disempower all men. 15 Less than a month after Lorena's acquittal, the cover story of Time magazine was "Are Men Really That Bad?"--illustrated by a large photo of a white pig wearing a business suit. The accompanying article by Lance Morrow complained about the rising popularity of "male-bashing," noting that "masculinity is in disrepute. Men have become the Germans of gender"; and "Bobbitt-lopping" has become the "feminist over-response to male violence against women" (54, 58). Within the larger social and historical context of power relations that are increasingly contested by women, lesbians and gays, people of color, and colonialized populations, men often reacted angrily to Lorena's acquittal, because they interpreted the verdict as one more assault on male primacy. Some objected that the verdict condoned Lorena's actions and, by inference, vilified all men. One man commented:
I know that when I hear "expert" after "expert" doing convoluted rhetorical handstands to show why any violent act by any woman against any man is justifiable self-defense "under patriarchy," I get so angry and bitter that my ability to listen to, and empathize with, legitimate female victims of male violence becomes greatly impaired. I don't WANT to be insensitive in this manner, but I am only human, and when too many of my "buttons" are pushed at once, it just happens. The battered women's movement would make more progress in the long run if they gave higher priority to ending violence than to categorically blaming all males. The fact is, we men really AREN'T all two-dimensional, cardboard-cutout enemies who want to live in a society in which all women are beaten into submission, cowed and afraid. Many of us genuinely care and want to be supportive of battered women. But when we feel as if the issue is being used unfairly to demonize and bludgeon us, and that legitimate male victims are being ignored and/or blamed, we wind up becoming part of a backlash. (Electronic mail 24 Jan. 1994)One journalist speculated that during the Bobbitt trials, constant repetition of the word "penis" may actually have served as a talisman for men who somehow hoped that if they made jokes about John's loss and thereby shifted the focus to another man, what happened to John Bobbitt would never happen to them (Goldstein 8). Many Bobbitt jokes seemed laden with male anxiety: What did John Bobbitt say when he was propositioned by a hooker? Answer: Sorry, I'm a little short this week (electronic mail from Alan Hall, 3 Feb. 1994). Or, Why won't they be able to convict Lorena Bobbitt? Answer: There's no hard evidence, and the evidence they have won't stand up in court (electronic mail from Tom Rowe, 17 Jan. 1994). Puns like these suggested male insecurity about men's sexual prowess and performance, their status in the changing social order, and, particularly, the possibility of rejection or retribution by women. Why, we might ask, did so many journalists think it was important to describe the length of the knife (some said eight, others said twelve inches) Lorena used to sever John's penis, or the fact that it had a red handle (perhaps a metonymic image referring to blood)?
Susan Bordo suggests that despite the glorification of the male body as a symbol of strength, men's sense of insecurity may stem from the unpredictable and fluctuating character of the very organ they have fetishized. "Indeed, the penis--insofar as it is capable of being soft as well as hard, injured as well as injuring, helpless as well as proud, emotionally needy as well as cold with will, insofar as it is vulnerable, perishable body--haunts the phallus, threatens its undoing" (698-99). Similarly, journalist June Callwood asked whether men's insecurities may stem from the fact that their sexual organs hang outside their bodies, making them feel vulnerable to possible damage or harm (Fotheringham 72). This notion suggests an inversion of phallocentric cultural values, a recognition that contrary to the usual theorizing about the physical weaknesses or limitations of women, it is possible to postulate that men are vulnerable precisely because of the physiological characteristics of the organ frequently identified as a sign of male power.
But beyond their anxieties and concerns that all men are being blamed for the bigotry and oppression exercised by some men, male transmitters of Bobbitt-lore also expressed their discomfort over the loss of male and white-skin privilege signaled by the Lorena Bobbitt verdict. One man noted:
Here are some random thoughts from an embittered male. Personally, I feel that the verdict was a travesty. Like many straight white males I know, I feel like somewhat of an outcast. I find I must be substantially better than any visible minorities, women or aboriginal people when I am applying for a job. I feel that society's hatred towards straight white males was reflected in the verdict. . . . There is a double standard in our society that says if a man is abusive, he is an animal that must be caged, but if a woman is abusive, then men are only getting their just desserts. Part of the problem is exacerbated by what I feel is an incredibly militant, left-wing women's movement that will mobilize at any opportunity to spread their own agenda, which is in itself harmful to the fabric of our society. (Electronic mail from Andrew Lapsley, 18 Feb. 1994)Angry reactions like this one suggest a sense of anxiety about lost gender and racial privileges but little acknowledgment that men who are now feeling disenfranchised rarely protested cultural assumptions about gender roles and power imbalances when they benefited from them.16 The backlash against feminism and other voices of resistance spurred the creation of a distinctive type of misogynistic Bobbitt-lore, the most popular and prevalent kind I encountered. In addition to other uses, the term "Bobbitt" became a slang expression for a woman who ignores or refuses to cater to men, a woman who "cuts off men as cruelly as Lorena did, with the scissors of her indifference" (J 81). Bobbitt-lore of this type conveys a pervasive concern about women who are assertive, cunning, and who step out of prescribed social roles by taking aggressive action against men. Around the time of Lorena's trial, one man quipped that his wife would not think of cutting off his penis, because she was too busy leading him around by it (electronic mail 7 Feb. 1994). Jokes about Lorena Bobbitt frequently compared her to other assertive women who were in the news during the time of her trial, particularly figure skater Tonya Harding and Hillary Rodham Clinton. In one joke, a man tells his friends: "I had a really strange dream last night. I dreamt that I went to bed with Hillary Clinton, Lorena Bobbitt, and Tonya Harding. When I woke up this morning, my knee was killing me, my manhood was gone, and I didn't have any health insurance!" (electronic mail from Joseph Goodwin, 2 Nov. 1994).17 One of the most popular Bobbitt riddles meshed the three women into a single, terrifying personality: Who's the most feared woman in America? Answer: Tonya Rodham Bobbitt. Folklorist Elizabeth Kissling noted that these three women were lumped together because they were "known for speaking their minds, acting autonomously, and in their own self-interests--all dangerous behaviors for women, in a society where femininity means nurturance of others, passivity, and dependence" (5).
Expressions of male anxiety and vulnerability emerged repeatedly in patriarchal Bobbitt-lore. Was it incidental (or accidental) that a September 1994 television special about declining sperm counts in men and the evolution of hermaphroditic animal species was entitled "Assault on the Male," or did the program mirror a more pervasive concern?18 Funny stories regarding male insecurity about even the mention of Lorena Bobbitt, and subsequent efforts to reassert male primacy through phallic imagery, sometimes emerged in unexpected places. Ann Risley Strawn recounted the following incident:
Our Cub Scout Pack was having a cook-out. I walked up to the serving table and noticed that my friend Betsy was holding a steak knife in one hand and an uncooked hot dog in the other, at which point I inquired if this was the Lorena Bobbitt Invitational Barbecue. The conversation continued as we conjured up the idea for a Bobbitt Wiener Toss and a Memory Skills Test (you have to remember where it landed, of course). We noticed that suddenly the men were all looking quite uncomfortable about these uncooked hot dogs and their proximity to the knife-wielding wives and mothers. The best moment was looking at the campfire and seeing fifteen men and boys peacefully roasting their 'wienies' (the term used by the scouts)--but we noticed that they had placed the hot dogs the long way on the sticks, rather the standard cross-way mode. We thought it was a rather poignant ending to a humorous situation. (Electronic mail, 28 Jan. 1994)Just the mention of Lorena Bobbitt made some men nervous. As one journalist commented, "It serves, first and most frighteningly, as a man's scariest fantasy of Feminine Revenge, worse than any plot of Lysistrata" ("Ballad" A20). Editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich captured this feeling in his depiction of "Thanksgiving at the Bobbitts," in which a woman raises a carving knife in the air, and the men and boys hide under the table in terror. The woman in the cartoon is faceless, she is everywoman--neither young nor shapely, and she appears in a traditional domestic role. With this image in mind, people joked that after the Bobbitt incident, men were less likely to insist that women belong in the kitchen or quipped that millions of men had suddenly taken to sleeping on their stomachs. Columnist Art Buchwald similarly described the discomfort that he and other men experienced during a dinner party conversation about the Bobbitt cases:
Mary Patterson declared: "Mrs. Bobbitt was sending her husband an important message and that's essential in a relationship. Unfortunately, John was watching football."The fear that other women would follow Lorena's example was a popular motif in Bobbitt-lore.19 Jay Leno quipped, "I'll bet Bob Packwood is nervous now, eh? Today, up in Oregon, twenty-nine women just bought Ginsu knives, and they'll all be looking for him." This theme echoed across electronic-mail networks, as people joked that when volunteer firefighter Howard Perry found John Bobbitt's severed penis in the field, he proclaimed, "I don't know if it's the right one, but it fits the description" (electronic mail from Alan Hall, 3 Feb., 1994). One unnamed male author, who supported Lorena Bobbitt's acquittal and was critical of the responses he was hearing from other men, put it a bit more succinctly:It wasn't what Mary said that bothered the men at the table, it was the way she was cutting her steak as she said it.
Chuck McDermott laughed nervously. "Mary, the beef is already dead. You don't have to slice it with such vengeance." (B1)
The recent hysteria over the Bobbitts exposed the raw nerve of castration anxiety among men. This is akin to the massive paranoia that gripped white slave-owning communities about the possibility of slave rebellions; it is rooted in guilt and fear, the projection that women (or slaves), having been mutilated and victimized for millennia, will rise up and vengefully turn the tables. ("International" 1)There may be reason for men to feel anxious. While the news media and Lorena Bobbitt's defense attorneys described Lorena's deed as if it were a unique occurrence brought on by temporary insanity, information emerging from diverse sources suggests otherwise. On 20 September 1992--nine months before the Bobbitt incident--Aurelia Macías of Los Angeles, California, cut off her husband's testicles with a pair of scissors. The defense argued that her husband had beaten Macías throughout their seventeen-year marriage, that she was about to be raped by him, and that he had threatened to kill her.20 The Associated Press released a story describing how, in July 1993 (just a month after the Bobbitt event), Cynthia Gillett was charged with malicious maiming after she reportedly doused her sleeping husband's penis with nail polish remover and set him on fire in Waynesville, North Carolina ("Woman" 29).21
Similar incidents were reported around the world, usually in conjunction with media coverage of the Bobbitt cases. In 1992, a German woman, Heidemarie Siebke, cut off her former lover's penis when he demanded they have sex. They argued, and she smashed a chair over his head, fracturing his skull. While he was unconscious, she severed his penis with a carving knife and set the house on fire to cover her crime (Atkinson C1-2).22 In Zimbabwe, Shanangurai Tinarwo pleaded guilty to assault charges after slicing off her husband's penis in January 1994, when she found him sleeping with another woman ("How Do You Say" 20). The practice of women severing men's penises appears to be well-known in Thailand (Gleick et al. 96), Korea ("How Do You Say" 20), and the Philippines (Ch'ien 20), either in abuse cases or when a wife catches a husband having an extramarital affair.23
During the Bobbitt trials, women came forward to announce that although they had never actually done so, they often wished they had found the courage to mutilate their own rapists. Evelyn Smith, who was acquitted of killing her husband in 1992--the first successful use of the battered-woman defense in the state of Maryland--was one of the few spectators allowed in the very small courtroom in Manassas, Virginia. Reflecting on her experiences, she told reporters, "No, I didn't cut my husband's penis off, but to be honest with you, I thought about it many times. I've been raped, and I would lay there and cry and wish that it would rot and fall off" (Leiby B8).24 Meanwhile, urban legends resurfaced and circulated across the United States about women assaulting men's sexual organs. In October 1995, Nancy Michela shared with me a story she heard from a nurse who works in an emergency room. In this legend, jealousy prompts the woman's act:
Many years ago, a prominent, married state legislator in New York was known in appropriate circles to have a new girlfriend. She was a cub reporter covering politics for the local television station. They had an affair for a period of time. Reelection time came, and his wife said, "Get rid of the girlfriend, or I'll sue you for divorce and you'll lose the election" (the politician was a Catholic). The legislator continued to see the reporter. One night, the legislator was rushed by ambulance to the hospital emergency room. His penis had been glued to the toilet seat by his wife (no one established how this was done). The ER staff removed the penis from the seat, treated his injury, and sent the man home. Within days, the legislator's lover moved to New York City in order to accept a news-anchor position. And the legislator was photographed arm-in-arm with his beloved wife at his reelection celebration in November.
Renegotiating Gender Politics and Decrying Violence against Women
Even though there was little formal support for Lorena from nationally recognized feminist leaders, many women across the country sent letters, postcards, bouquets of flowers, and stuffed animals to "Lorena Bobbitt, Manassas, VA" (Miller and Tousignant "Bobbitt Acquitted" A9), and they proliferated Bobbitt-lore critical of male dominance. One genre satirized men's obsession about penis size and sexual performance:
Q: Did you hear about the new hot dog they're offering on Coney Island?Noting that the Bobbitt incident took place in Virginia, not far from the location where Disney hoped to build a new theme park, feminist comedian Kate Clinton joked that perhaps "it is a small world after all." (Leiby B8)A: Yeah, it's called the John Wayne Bobbitt: it's a little short and rather unsatisfying. (Electronic mail, 28 Jan. 1994)
Bobbitt-lore of this kind inverted phallocentric discourse by trivializing or negating the primacy of the penis. Stand-up comedian Margo Gómez, for example, included a little Bobbitt humor in her routine on "Comic Relief VI." After identifying herself as a Puerto Rican and Cuban lesbian, she commented, "I am a Latin woman, but I would never sever anybody's penis. I wouldn't really know where it is."25 During Lorena Bobbitt's trial, a series of jokes entitled "101 Uses for a Dead Penis" appeared on the rec.humor electronic-mail newsgroup. Among the suggestions offered by subscribers on 2 February 1994 were: one could use a dead penis as "a spout warmer for a teapot," "finger puppet (paint a face on it)," "a garden hose spray nozzle," or one could "skin it to make a wallet (rub it and it turns into a suitcase)." Nicole Hollander, creator of Sylvia cartoons, suggested that underlying men's anxiety concerning women's jokes about men and penis-related humor lies a more significant concern: "Men are frightened by women's humor because they think that when women are alone, they're making fun of men. This is perfectly true, but they think we're making fun of their equipment when in fact there are so many more interesting things to make fun of--such as their value systems" (qtd. in Barreca, Snow White 198). The process of ridiculing penises through Bobbitt jokes and stories provided women an opportunity to contest male privilege and existing gender relations more generally. Such humor sometimes appeared subtly and in the most domesticated places. One woman recounted this story in which the joke was on the father of the family:
My mother is a wonderful cook. She really goes all out for Christmas, baking cookies and filling the house with a wonderful aroma. One of my gifts was a tin containing a variety of Christmas cookies. I dug down to the third layer. There, resting on a bed of wax paper, were the most perfect little dough-colored cookies. They were elliptical in shape, about an inch-and-a half long, and one end was dipped in chocolate. My mother said in lowered voice, "I call these 'Bobbitts'! But don't you call them that, it bothers your father." They were delicious, with a slight lemon flavor. I hope my mother makes "Bobbitts" next year, too. (Electronic mail, 21 Jan. 1994)Feminist Bobbitt-lore often focused on the pattern of abuse and degradation experienced by Lorena, using the Bobbitt trials as a way of calling attention to male domination or violence against women more generally.26 Despite the fact that John Bobbitt denied he had ever hit or sexually abused her, expert witnesses for both the prosecution and the defense testified that he had mentally and physically battered Lorena, that the abuse was escalating, and that by 1993 she lived in constant fear of him.27
Concurrent with the Bobbitt trials, editorials appeared in newspapers citing statistics about the gendered dimensions of sexual and domestic violence: 98.9 percent of rape victims are women, and every year in the United States 3,000 men murder their wives or partners ("Million" A26).28 Laura X, from the National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape, discussed Lorena's acquittal in the framework of existing marital rape laws and the need for future legislation to protect women (151-53). Women often objected to the media coverage of the Bobbitt cases, observing that men rape and brutalize women every day but the press rarely publicizes these crimes (Heimel 58). One woman protested, "What I find interesting about this whole situation is that every year there are thousands of documented cases of women being abused and raped by men. Yet, there is such huge coverage of this one case of a woman attacking a man" (electronic mail from Kathy Homer, 24 Jan. 1994). Another noted, "I can't believe people are getting so bent out of shape about this. Rapists are chopping off women's arms and getting out on parole two years later, and maybe it's covered once in the news. But let one woman touch one single penis and the whole country goes ballistic" (Heimel 58).
This disparity became evident in August 1995, when Richard Rosenthal was arrested for beating and killing his wife in Framingham, Massachusetts. Rosenthal allegedly attacked her in a fit of rage, sliced open her chest with a butcher knife, then ripped out her heart and lungs and impaled them on a wooden stake. Afterward, he told passersby that he had become angry about an overcooked pasta dish ("Man Held" A2). The event received scant media attention. A short summary of the incident appeared in local papers, but it generated little national coverage, nor did it make the headlines. Interestingly, there was no discussion of the length of the knife or the ethnicity of the perpetrator, but the Associated Press article stated that people who knew Rosenthal regarded him as a serious, hardworking person.
Reacting to the androcentric Bobbitt-lore that permeated U.S. popular culture and the lack of recognition of the severity or pervasiveness of violence against women, various groups of feminists responded in their own ways. In San Francisco, an organization called the Lesbian Avengers sponsored a celebratory "Wienie Roast" or "Bobbitt-cue" to commemorate Lorena's action (electronic mail from Jym Dyer, 26 Jan. 1994). Feminists also created their own jokes and limericks, such as the following, which described John Bobbitt as a rapist rather than the hapless victim of a jealous woman:
There once was a rapist named BobbittWhen I asked the author of this limerick how she felt about the verdict, she responded:
Who wouldn't respect his wife's "Stop it!"
His dick was a weapon
And so I do reckon
She was left with no choice but to chop it!
(Electronic mail from Melodie Frances, 24 Jan. 1994)29
To be honest, I think it's about time. Intellectually, I believe that I should not be happy about someone else being assaulted, but so many women I care about have been sexually abused, that a big part of me really has enjoyed a woman fighting back. This may not be very enlightened of me, but it is how I feel. I was disappointed when he was not convicted, and I was real glad when she wasn't. I'm only sorry that the doctors were able to re-attach his penis. . . . I should also add, as long as I'm being honest, that I have thoroughly enjoyed the jokes that have made men squirm. (Electronic mail from Melodie Frances, 25 Jan. 1994).
Expressions of Women's Refusal and Retribution
Portrayals of women who use violence as retribution have recently become a more acknowledged part of European and American popular culture. In a B movie entitled I Spit on Your Grave, for example, a woman who was gang-raped castrates one of her rapists in a scene involving a bloody bubble bath (Leonard 618). Helen Birch and the contributing authors to the volume Moving Targets: Women, Murder, and Representation note that portrayals of women who kill their lovers or spouses have become a new archetype in Hollywood cinema (e.g., Thelma and Louise, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Basic Instinct, Single White Female). Birch suggests that while male violence is old news, until recently female violence in films has been relatively rare and is gaining popularity with viewers (1-2).30
Images of women who use violence to avenge male violence against them are also becoming more prevalent in contemporary joke cycles. Women, in particular, seemed to enjoy Bobbitt-lore of this type. Noting the therapeutic and subversive aspects of feminist humor, Regina Barreca suggests that
certain forms of comedy can invert the world not only briefly but permanently; can strip away the dignity and complacency of powerful figures only to refuse to hand them back these attributes when the allotted time for "carnival" is finished. Comedy can effectively channel anger and rebellion by first making them appear to be acceptable and temporary phenomena, no doubt to be purged by laughter, and then harnessing the released energies, rather than dispersing them. (New Perspectives 6)In her investigations of the ways in which women's humor may be shaped by women's anger and refusal to accept the status quo, Barreca notes that for women, humor and aggression can work together in at least three ways. They can be (1) directed at women, (2) deflected by women, or (3) directed by women (or any other subordinate group) at their oppressors as a way of questioning authority (Snow White 72). Much of the Bobbitt humor created by women was of the third type, specifically targeting men and questioning their authority through comedic reversals and metaphors of women's aggression against men who have violated them.31 Barreca contends that one of the central characteristics of feminist humor is the temporary loss of certainty about men's unquestioned ability to define and control social relations:
A male friend suggested to me that the real reason many men are worried by funny women isn't even the most obvious one: it's not, he explained, that men are afraid that women will laugh at them. It's not even that men are afraid that women will laugh at them during sex or guffaw at the size of their sexual apparatus. Rather, it's that a man can't really laugh and maintain an erection at the same time. . . .Joking is a reaction that allows the joker to feel in control, however briefly. When someone in a powerless position laughs at the one holding the reins, the figure of authority is sometimes shocked into an awareness of the tenuous nature of any form of control. (Snow White 19, 58)
Recognizing that the portrayal of abused women as passive, sick, mentally impaired, or helpless may have the unfortunate side effect of reinforcing existing stereotypes, feminists often told jokes about Lorena and John Bobbitt that depicted Lorena as active, decisive, and aggressive, and John as passive, ignorant, and powerless.32 Women across the country conveyed a militant and threatening stance when they made V signs for victory by raising two fingers and bringing them together in a snipping motion as a sign of support for Lorena (Ehrenreich, "Feminism" 74). They also created a new vernacular expression, "We're having a Bobbitt sort of day," to describe times when having to contend with male chauvinism was more likely to meet with their rage than their sympathy (Sameh 14). These were women who celebrated the woman warrior images in popular films like Thelma and Louise,33 Alien, and Terminator II, women who sported bumper stickers identifying themselves as "Beyond Bitch" and who laughed at unflattering comparisons between cucumbers and men. This population of women celebrated "in-your-face" humor that depicted Lorena Bobbitt as a feminist icon. Unconcerned with social propriety and expectations, they attended the daily vigil at the Manassas courthouse wearing T-shirts emblazoned with slogans such as "Revenge--How Sweet It Is" to salute Lorena's actions. For this group, Lorena Bobbitt became a symbol for women who are keenly aware of men's abuse in their daily lives, and who are expressing their anger in unexpected ways.
There was an entire genre of "what I would have done with it" jokes, in which women commented that they would have tossed the severed penis down the garbage disposal or backed the car over it. Women joked that Lorena simply acted on the unspoken social adage "Dress for success--wear a white penis" or laughed heartily when they heard that as a result of his injury, John Bobbitt would now have to sit down to pee (Heimel 59). A female professor in Indiana who just finished a research project about sexual harassment told the following joke to a small group of students and colleagues: "Did you know that Lorena actually asked her husband if he wanted his penis cut off? She did. The problem was that he said 'no,' but she knew he really meant yes" (electronic mail from Heather Walden, 27 Jan. 1994).
In the guise of humor or entertainment, Bobbitt-lore with revenge as its theme sometimes offered thinly veiled warnings to men. One example was a conflated version of two classic urban legends that circulated in early 1994: A man woke up one morning to find a red ribbon tied around his penis. Attached to the ribbon was a note from his wife that simply said, "It could have been you" (Achenbach and Lieby D7). The message of these jokes, stories, and urban legends was that men, both individually and collectively, were finally going to pay the price for their abusive and violent treatment of women.34 One especially ominous example was reported in New York City during Lorena's trial, when posters suddenly appeared with images of male genitals being sliced off by a shiny dagger. Underneath the illustration were the threatening words "Rape--A national sport. Well, now it's a whole new ball game, boys!" (Udovitch 16). Public displays like this one intimated that women were in revolt, threatening that Lorena's actions provided the impetus for other women to follow her lead.
Women's expressions of anger through the castration or penile amputation of abusive men is a theme that also arises in various forms of contemporary feminist humor and art.35 Some of the best examples appear in Diane DiMassa's cartoons about Hothead Paisan, who is, by DiMassa's own description, a "homicidal lesbian terrorist." Hothead Paisan is a woman who refuses to conform to patriarchal notions of female identity. She constantly encounters, confronts, and often executes obnoxious men. In one cartoon, Hothead uses an axe to sever the penis of a homophobic flasher and then experiments with the penis in different ways: she plays football with it, pretends that it is a microphone, tries to feed it to the dog, makes it into a lamp base, and finally puts it down the garbage disposal (DiMassa 21-22). In another strip, she takes her revenge by castrating a group of male doctors who have performed unnecessary surgical procedures on women (72-73). At the end of the Hothead collection, DiMassa delivers her own metanarrative on the violent images in her cartoons, noting satirically that "a lot of women need to vent their rage and this works for them. . . . Look!" she continues, "we're dealing with fantasy here! Haven't you ever been so pissed-off at someone that you fantasized about killing them?" (84). Newsweek writer Cynthia Heimel suggested that Lorena's actions exemplified the anger felt by many women:
rage against guys like the fabulously named John Wayne Bobbitt for attacking, abusing and raping members of our sex. Rage that mutilation of women's bodies and souls are daily fodder for primetime TV, whereas this one instance of table-turning has caused such a huge hissy-fit. Rage that ritualistic sexual mutilation of girls in Africa is a ho-hum matter of course whereas this [severing John Bobbitt's penis] is Big News. (58)Indeed, questions about the recognition and legitimation of women's rage became a strong subtext at Lorena Bobbitt's trial. When the prosecution argued, "This is a case about anger, it is a case about revenge, and it is a case about retribution" (Margolick, "Jury" A13), they knew that Lorena would be found guilty if the jury interpreted her actions as retaliation rather than as an irresistible impulse. In turn, the defense built their case on the contention that Lorena's actions were a hybrid of insanity and self-defense, not rage. In order to convince the jury that she responded to an irresistible impulse, it was vital that Lorena's attorneys portray her not as angry but rather as temporarily insane--so impaired by the abuse that she was completely unable to control or restrain her actions.36 Hence, the defense stressed Lorena's fear of John and his abusive behavior. Forensic psychologist Henry Gwaltney testified, for example, that Lorena believed and was immobilized by John's threat, "I will find you, whether we're divorced or separated. And wherever I find you, I'll have sex with you whenever I want to."
Defense attorneys also emphasized Lorena's confused mental state during the time of the incident, and glossed over her earlier comments that she would cut off John's penis if she ever caught him sleeping with another woman (Margolick, "Wife Says" A12)37 and her statement to police just after the incident, "He always have [sic] [an] orgasm and he doesn't wait for me to have [an] orgasm. He's selfish. I don't think it's fair, so I pulled back the sheets then and I did it" (Margolick, "Witnesses Say" A10). In their 1994 volume entitled Female Rage: Unlocking Its Secrets, Claiming Its Power, literary scholars Mary Valentis and Anne Devane explore the ways in which the Medusa myth is relevant to the lives of contemporary women. In interviewing a range of women in the United States, they found that many felt enormous rage at the gender-related limitations and expectations imposed on them, anger so intense that women feared what they might do if they let it explode (Valentis and Devane 8). Interpreting Lorena's actions as an effort to appropriate the phallus and use it against her rapist, they cite Lorena Bobbitt as an exemplary case of female rage (2):
Lorena Bobbitt's bedroom surgery entered popular folklore as a symbolic reinstatement of female power. . . . When Lorena became a vigilante taking up Perseus's sword, there was a dramatic turnabout in the old story. In the patriarchal myth, Medusa is a victim; in Lorena Bobbitt's case, it was the victim who claimed Medusa's terrible powers. . . . By identifying with Lorena, women around the world vicariously released their personal fury at husbands, lovers, bosses, and boyfriends. (174-75)Upon hearing the verdict in Lorena Bobbitt's trial, journalist Catherine Sameh observed that the underlying reason people were shocked by the incident was not only because it involved severing a penis but also because, finally, a woman turned her fury outward rather than inward (14). Despite the official discourse, some women used Bobbitt-lore to claim and celebrate the idea that it was rage, rather than insanity, that motivated Lorena to strike back at her abuser.
Clearly, Lorena Bobbitt and John Bobbitt became signifiers of many different things to different people, and Bobbitt-lore offered a chorus of discordant voices. People appropriated specific aspects of Lorena's and John's lives, imbuing them with significance in order to symbolize larger social and political issues. Various interpretations were related to ethnic, class, and gender identity. For some people, the Bobbitts became representative of social and political issues extending far beyond the specific circumstances of the two court cases. At the time of Lorena Bobbitt's trial, Esquire magazine published the results of a survey of one thousand women, ages eighteen to twenty-five--a group that would have included Lorena (Reimer A11). The majority responded that they would rather have bigger paychecks than bigger breasts, rather be brilliant but plain-looking than sexy but dumb, and if they could choose, they would rather be Hillary Rodham Clinton than Princess Diana. They were concerned about financial survival and equity, and about being respected for their work and for their contributions to society. Meanwhile, a story in Gentleman's Quarterly magazine--designed for a male readership--asked the tired question "What do women want?" and wondered why women are so damn angry (Reimer A11). The reactions to the Bobbitt trials--and the expressive culture that arose in response--were emblematic of unresolved issues arising from current battles over identity politics. For different groups of people, Lorena Bobbitt and her acquittal became markers of ethnic pride, class differences, male-bashing, or women's rage.
My thanks to Dale Chatham, Jean Dickson, Jim Foley, Allison Frailberg, Joseph Goodwin, Alan Hall, Sandee and Robert Piculell, Glenna Spitze, Margaret Yocom, and all the other people who shared Bobbitt-lore with me. Thanks also to Amadeo Meana for translating the Spanish texts. Correspondence should be sent to Linda Pershing, Social Sciences Building 341, SUNY-Albany, Albany, NY 12222.
Notes
1. Steven Zeitlin of Hastings, New York, reported that his nine year-old daughter, Eliza Zeitlin, came home from school one day singing the following song to the tune of "In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle, the Lion Sleeps Tonight":
In the bedroom, the mighty bedroom,2. Unless otherwise cited, all information about the events of 23 June 1993, and subsequent legal proceedings and testimony are quoted from live television coverage of Lorena Bobbitt's trial on the Court TV Network and CNN.
John Bobbitt sleeps tonight.
In the kitchen, the mighty kitchen,
Lorena grabs a knife.
A wienie-wack, a wienie-wack.
A wienie-wack, a wienie-wack.
A wienie-wack, a wienie-wack.
A wienie-wack, a wienie-wack.
(Personal communication, 21 Oct. 1994)
3. In March 1996, two years after her acquittal, officials released Lorena Bobbitt from court-ordered therapy and supervision ("Lorena Bobbitt Is Released" A2). See Speziale for a discussion of the inequities between the verdicts in the cases against Lorena Bobbitt and John Bobbitt. Speziale notes (312-13) that while John was acquitted and set free, Lorena's acquittal included the condition that she be sent to a mental institution to undergo psychiatric observation and counseling.
4. Bobbitt jokes appeared in the Top Ten lists on 17 Nov. 1993, and 12, 13, and 18 Jan. 1994.
5. In January 1994, people in nearly fifteen million homes subscribed to the Courtroom Television Network (Cash 17). Because Lorena Bobbitt was charged with malicious wounding, her case was televised, but John Bobbitt's trial was not broadcast, because Virginia state law prohibits televising sex-crime trials (Tousignant and Miller, "Bobbitt Trial" A6).
6. See Gleick et al.; Goldstein; Junod; Leonard; and "Unkindest Cut."
7. Jean Dickson, for example, reported that she had heard a biblical parody: "If thine organ offend thee, bobbitt" (electronic mail, 24 Jan. 1994). In a letter to Dear Abby, Luis Campos from North Hollywood, California mentioned that he almost "Bobbittized" his finger with a knife (Times Union [Albany] 2 June 1994: C2). Robert Piculell from Guilderland, New York, reported that while working at his office, he heard someone use the term "Bobbitt" to describe a crimping tool for cutting wire (personal communication, 26 Jan. 1994). In reporting an incident in which another woman severed the penis of a man who abused her, Filipinas magazine stated that she "did a Lorena Bobbitt" on him ("Transitions" 12).
8. When I posted electronic-mail messages requesting examples of Bobbitt jokes, several people wrote back telling me that the topic was not funny or appropriate for scholarly research. One man from Washington, D.C., said: "I don't think the Bobbitt case is worth making jokes about, let alone writing about the jokes. I think cutting off a penis is about as funny as mutilating a vagina" (electronic mail, 27 Jan. 1994). A woman subscriber to WMST-L, the Women's Studies electronic mail discussion group, objected to the idea of posting Bobbitt jokes to the list:
Far be it for me to tell anyone what their research interests should include, or what they should or shouldn't find funny or laugh at, etc., etc., etc. But I do not think humor about gender-based violence belongs on a women's studies academic information exchange. . . . I am afraid that humor about racial and gender violence is most welcomed (and also most laughed at) by those who would like to believe that it is not all that serious a concern in the first place. (Electronic mail, 16 Jan. 1994)9. The following message, posted on the alt.feminism electronic mail newsgroup on 21 Jan. 1994, articulated this position:
Jeez. What 'n' hell is the U.S. justice system coming to? Mitigating factors are supposed to affect the SENTENCE, not the VERDICT. So the guilty person goes free because of publicity. . . . Yes, I'm bitter. And I'm even more bitter because I imagine that some clueless snot will say, "And all the feminists are delighted at this verdict." If any such person reads this group, . . . I want to notify him or her that all the feminists-I-know think Lorena Bobbitt is a sick woman. I think she belongs in a mental institution; (I think her husband probably does, too, but that's a separate issue). . . .A brief debate about media perceptions of feminists who supported Lorena Bobbitt appeared on the WMST-L electronic-mail discussion list in Nov. 1994. On 8 Nov. 1994, one subscriber described the following incident:I'm disgusted with the courts for their verdict; with the media for their gleeful coverage; with anyone who tries to make the Bobbitt psychopaths into political symbols.
At a WS conference we hosted here last year, one woman came to the conference wearing a jacket she had painted with the words "Lorena Bobbitt Fan Club" and a knife dripping blood. (I'm not kidding.) OK, so there, it seems to me, is an example of "grand-standing" that is pretty hard to defend. But it is hardly a representative of "feminism" either, at least of any other feminists I know.10. Nor did this group of feminists comment on the repeating pattern of John's violent behavior. Just months after Lorena's trial, the media reported John Bobbitt's subsequent abuse of another woman. He was arrested and convicted twice of beating his new fiancée, twenty-one-year-old Kristina Elliott, who called police after John hit her, twisted her arm against her back, and slammed her against a wall. See "Bobbitt Convicted" A2; "Jail" B11; Romano A4.In comes the media: the local paper chose one photograph to illustrate the story on the conference (which was, by and large, an awfully tame conference by anyone's standards) and it was--you guessed it--a photograph of that jacket.
Now is this "our"/feminism's fault or the media? I blame both; certainly I blame the media more, but then, again, in our desire to create a "safe-space" where everyone can voice their views, do we neglect to offer constructive self-criticism? Do we neglect to "call" other feminists on positions that seem more destructive than helpful? I think so. I can certainly say that I didn't say a word to the woman about her jacket--even though I was angered by it.
11. See Berns 26; Duhart A3; Kaplan 52; Khanna 3; Masters 170; Morrow 54; and Nemeth, "Judgment" 43.
12. For commentary on the sudden popularity and social acceptability of the word "penis," see Algeo and Algeo; "Rise"; and Safire.
13. Goldberg made this comment as cohost of "Comic Relief VI," January 1994. Robert K. Dornan, a U.S. representative from California, made a similar observation during his 28 Jan. 1994 appearance on the television show "Politically Incorrect." As he made jokes about Lorena Bobbitt, Pee-wee Herman, Woody Allen, and Michael Jackson, he commented, "Think of this not as the year of the dog, but of the penis" (Senior I1).
14. My thanks to the work of Susan Bordo (697-98) for calling Sheets-Johnstone to my attention. Bordo offers an excellent discussion of the implications of phallic imagery and cultural interpretations of the male body. It is worth noting that with all of the media attention devoted to penises during the Bobbitt trials, none of the major newspapers in the nation included a photo of the severed penis, even though photos were available through the Associated Press ("Rise" 8). In television coverage of the trial, cameras briefly focused on a large photograph of John Bobbitt's severed penis that was displayed in the courtroom before panning away to an expert witness ("Bits" 28).
15. It is significant that the word "castration" (the removal of the testicles), although not technically accurate, was frequently conflated with John Bobbitt's injury. During the Bobbitt trials, the word "castration" was often used to indicate what would happen to other men if women began to seek restitution for male sexual assaults against them. Two months after Lorena's trial, legislators and journalists named a Florida law mandating the castration of rapists the "Bobbitt Bill" ("'Bobbitt Bill'" D1).
16. Despite the fact that attorneys use the insanity defense in only 1 percent of all felony trials and that three states have eliminated insanity defenses altogether, some men complained that Lorena's acquittal was a sure sign that the legal system had run amok (Goldberg 42). Foremost among them was attorney Alan M. Dershowitz, whose writing, lectures, and talk show appearances have made him the best-known critic of what he calls the "abuse excuse" used to defend Lorena Bobbitt (whom he dubbed a "feminist Dirty Harry") and other victims of violent crimes who have struck back at their abusers. Arguing that "most women who are mistreated by their husbands do not resort to the kitchen knife," Dershowitz contended that Lorena Bobbitt "was an angry, vengeful woman who chose to exact revenge rather than exercise the option of leaving her abusive husband" (Abuse 27). Her victimization, he asserted, "must not be allowed to become a moral or legal license to engage in vigilantism" (Dershowitz, "Provocation" A6). Responses like this one were based on a series of unspoken assumptions, including the belief that the U.S. legal system has offered all residents an equitable playing field, a failure to recognize the historic inequalities on which the nation has been based, and obfuscation of the multitudinous ways in which laws have often been written to benefit some people and not others.
17. The following are other examples of this genre:
Did you hear about the new mixed drink called the Tonya Bobbitt? It's a club soda with a slice. (Electronic mail from Joseph Goodwin, 2 Mar. 1994)A cable television special entitled "National Lampoon's Attack of the 5 Ft. 2 Women" aired on Showtime TV on 21 Aug. 1994. Written by Julie Brown and Charlie Coffey, the show featured parodies of Tonya Harding ("Tonya Hardly: The Battle of Wounded Knee") and Lorena Bobbitt ("He Never Gave Me Orgasm: The Lenora Babbitt Story").Question: What do you get when you cross Lorena Bobbitt and Tonya Harding? Answer: I don't know, but I wouldn't date it if I were you! (Electronic mail from Dale J. Chatham, 11 Feb. 1994)
During a White House staff meeting, Vice President Al Gore asked the president whether "the operation would be covered in the new health plan.18. "Assault on the Male," directed by Deborah Cadbury, 4 Sept. 1994, Discovery Channel television. See also Walter Goodman's article "Something Is Attacking Male Fetus Sex Organs.""What?" the leader of the free world asked.
"You know, the, ah, penile reattachment," the man who is just a heartbeat from the presidency answered.
"I'll check," Clinton told him, picking up the phone. A quick call to the first lady brought a ruling: Having a penis is a preexisting condition, she assured the two men, and is therefore covered by the plan as corrective--rather than cosmetic--surgery. (Electronic mail from Tony New, 22 Jan. 1994)
19. Men expressed this concern in rhymes such as the following:
A Bobbitt's Prayer Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray my penis I will keep,
And if I wake and it is gone,
I hope to find it on my lawn.
I hope the dog that's running free
Does not find that part of me.
A little precaution I must take
To keep this part I love to shake.
Much attention I must pay
To ensure I put that knife away,
The mower, chainsaw, hatchet, too,
There's just no telling what she'll do
To relieve me of my manly charm,
And I must keep it safe from harm.
I cross my fingers as I close my eyes,
and I cross my legs to avoid surprise.
And if my penis takes a whack,
I pray the doctors can sew it back! (Photocopy circulated anonymously, 1995)20. On 19 Mar. 1994, Macías was acquitted of charges of mayhem and assault with a deadly weapon, by reason of temporary insanity. Prosecutors complained that Macías's defense attorneys watched Lorena Bobbitt's trial and used similar arguments to present their case ("L.A. Woman" A2). However, on 19 Apr. 1994, California Superior Court Judge Robert O'Neil ruled that Macías should be retried ("Judge" A5).
21. Electronic mail from Barbara Mikkelson, 23 Jan. 1994, reporting on a story that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on 22 Jan. 1994.
22. Siebke was found guilty of attempted murder, aggravated assault, and arson, but on 16 Feb. 1994, Judge Jutta Hecht imposed only a three-year jail term on the grounds that Siebke acted in self-defense.
23. According to Filipinas magazine, Avelina Rule of Cebu City in the Philippines cut off her husband's penis and chopped it into pieces (Viana 60), and Gine Espina, also a Filipina, was charged with "mutilation of a reproductive organ" for a similar crime ("Transitions" 12). Filipina activist Ninotchka Rosca commented that she was surprised by all the fuss about the Bobbitt cases because "it's a standard thing in the Philippines! If you have someone who's fooling around, you cut off his penis" (Ch'ien 20). See also Agnihotri (53) for a discussion of a 1994 film entitled Purush, the story of a young woman in India who severed the penis of a lecherous politician. In addition to the above-mentioned incidents, other similar cases were reported by various individuals, newspapers, and magazines. See, for example, "How Do You Say" (20) for incidents in four countries, and Caher ("Slashing"; "Top Court") concerning the case of Vicki-Crystal A. Wright from Albany, New York, who was charged with second-degree assault for a Feb. 1990 incident in which she severed the penis of a man who allegedly attempted to rape her. See also Lewis (2) and Nemeth ("Hot" 66) for discussions of the 1992 acquittal of a battered woman in Canada who allegedly cut off her husband's penis. On 22 Jan. 1994, Jiri Severa posted this notice about related incidents on the alt.feminism electronic mail newsgroup:
In Canada we have had "a spate" of three castrations in the last two years . . . , none of which resulted in the perpetrator ending up in jail. One of the cases was [only] an attempt, which resulted in minor injuries to both parties. The charges were dropped. In another, a substitute teacher nearly cut off all of her lover's penis (this was an extramarital affair). She was charged with attempted murder, as she had tied him down and left him to bleed to death. She is a fugitive from justice, eluding arrest since last April. Finally, in a scenario almost identical to that of the Bobbitts, a Mississauga woman in 1992 completely severed her husband's penis. It was reattached, and she was later acquitted. The jury accepted her act as self-defense (!) against an abusive husband, even though . . . she actually planned the assault and drugged him before cutting him up.24. Another woman wrote the following letter to Dear Abby, expressing her sympathy and understanding:
Dear Abby: About the Lorena Bobbitt case: I am a 60-year-old woman, and her story is nothing new to me. I have been married for nearly 40 years to a man who is well-thought-of in the community and who has provided well for me and our family, but if he was ever denied anything in bed, it was a different story. He would throw things, slam doors, take off in the car; then come back still angry and tell me I didn't understand a man's needs.25. Gómez's joke was the only one I heard that overtly addressed heterosexism or challenged heterosexuality as the cultural norm.Rather than risk being embarrassed if the neighbors heard us, or risk upsetting the children, I would give in. I never refused him. He was far from gentle. He thought it was manly to take whatever he wanted. That's the way he got full enjoyment. It was more like rape. If I complained, he would start all over again even though I was worn out and exhausted.
He kept saying I was stupid and didn't understand a man's "needs." The problem was, he didn't understand mine. And he didn't care. I can understand Mrs. Bobbitt's feelings. If I had the courage, I might have done what she did. I assure you, I'm not the only woman who has had such thoughts. I have always wanted to tell someone this, but I was too ashamed.
Thanks, Abby. I feel better for having gotten this out of my system.
Signed, Georgia (my state, not my name) (Van Buren I2)
26. Friends and family members described the way John repeatedly threatened and hit this five-foot two-inch, ninety-two-pound woman (John was five feet eleven inches tall and weighed 190 pounds). During her testimony, Lorena Bobbitt related more than a dozen times when her husband had kicked, punched, choked, or raped her (Margolick, "Wife Tells" A12) and said that she was afraid of contracting HIV from John because of his sexual relations with other women (Masters 210). She contended that in 1990, John had coerced her into having an abortion. She wanted the baby, but John convinced her that the child would be ugly and she would be a bad mother. She testified that after the abortion, she "felt like nothing, like my life was over, like I was falling apart. It lasted a long time." Both John and Lorena's friends testified that they had seen him belittle and strike her for trivial matters, such as how she cooked and dressed. Others stated that they had seen bruises on her face and arms from the beatings she received (Margolick, "Wife Says"; "Wife Tells"; "Witnesses Say"). Some of John's male friends testified that they had heard him brag about how he liked to force Lorena to have sex, and how he controlled and dominated her (Margolick, "Witnesses Say" A10; Miller and Tousignant, "Rough Sex").
27. Court-appointed clinical psychologist Henry Gwaltney, who was supposed to be a witness for the prosecution, testified during Lorena's trial that the defendant was in a state of "clinical depression" and that she exhibited symptoms of disorientation, distraction, and sleeplessness; showed no interest in life; and suffered from hyperventilation, anxiety attacks, shaking, cramping, and exhaustion.
28. See also Gelles (A13), who noted in the context of the Bobbitt trials that between two and four million women (and about one hundred thousand men) are battered each year in the United States and that nearly 90 percent of the victims of violence between male and female partners are women.
29. Another similar limerick by a woman follows:
There once was a fellow named Bobbitt.30. For additional insight into media images of violent women, see Holmlund's essay, "A Decade of Deadly Dolls: Hollywood and the Woman Killer."
Rough sex was his forte. She sobbed, "It's
not mine," and objected.
Her pleas he rejected.
So, his wife took a knife and she bobbed it.(Electronic mail from Mary E. Gaiser, 21 Jan. 1994)
31. According to Barreca, the comic is inherently rooted in cultural particulars. She noted:
Why not see comedy as the last frontier of the universal, humor as that glorious patch of hallowed ground where we all meet and laugh with equal joy? A charming thought, but dangerous in its attempt to seduce the reader into a belief that we all laugh at the same things, even when we happen to laugh at the same time, that we all see the same thing when we stand next to one another. Comedy, out of all the textual territories explored, is the least universal. It is rigidly mapped and marked by subjectivity. It is most liable to be filtered by history . . . , social class . . . , race and ethnicity . . . , and gender.(New Perspectives 2-3)For feminist studies of humor see Barreca (Snow White; Last Laughs; New Perspectives); Cantor; Collier and Beckett; Coser; Finney; Green; Kaufman and Blake; Klein; Mitchell ("Hostility"; "Sexual Perspective"); L. Morris; Neitz; Sheppard; Sochen; Stillman and Beatts; Walker; and Weisstein.
32. See Radford for a discussion of the battered woman's syndrome legal defense developed by Lenore Walker in the late 1970s, which takes into account the effects of violence upon women as well as the social constraints that keep them in violent relationships. Radford expresses her concerns that this argument is a "gender-specific, double-edged defense with a tendency to fuel images of abused women as sick or passive, mentally impaired and unable to help themselves" (190).
33. See Signe Wilkinson's political cartoon, in which Thelma and Louise drive by Lorena Bobbitt as she walks down the road and ask her, "Want a lift?" Wilkinson, one of few women political cartoonists whose work is nationally syndicated, celebrates the rebellious nature of all three women. For insightful analyses of the image of the avenging or rampaging female in films and the mass media, see Birch and Holmund.
34. During her stand-up routine on the January 1994 television special "Comic Relief VI," Whoopi Goldberg offered her own similar commentary on the Bobbitts:
From my perspective, as a woman, I was so glad to see that someone finally evened up the odds. You know what I mean? It's like [she gestures as if she has sliced off a penis using one hand and is holding it up in the other], mother fuckers are panicking all across the country! Men don't know what to do! Do you realize what a cachet this is? You see, women live with the knowledge that weird shit could happen at any point. You go down a dark alley, and whoop, somebody grabs [attacks] you. And now, men actually have to think about this shit! It's 1994, and the shit is hitting the fan! Women are pissed!35. For a description of feminist performance artist Karen Finley's use of castration humor and women's retaliatory violence against men, see Pramaggiore.
36. During the trial, clinical psychologist Evan Nelson defined for the court the conditions that must occur under the legal rubric of "irresistible impulse": (1) the accused is able to understand the nature and consequences of her/his act and knows it is wrong, but (2) the thinking of the accused is so impaired by disease or trauma that she/he is totally deprived of the mental power to control or restrain her/his actions. A guilty verdict would have meant that the jury had to find that (1) Lorena wounded John Bobbitt; (2) she did so with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill him; and (3) she acted with malice (intentionally and without legal justification). In legal terms, malice can result from anger, hatred, or a desire for revenge. The rationale behind the irresistible-impulse defense is that people should not be punished when mental illness precludes them from refraining from the criminal act or prevents them from understanding the nature of their actions (Garcia 39).
37. Connie James, manager of the nail salon where Lorena Bobbitt worked, testified that Lorena once told her she would cut off John's penis if she ever found him having an extramarital affair (Miller and Tousignant, "Lorena" B3). During Lorena's trial, the defense entered as evidence a list that John kept, naming women with whom he supposedly had sex; Lorena testified that he used it to taunt her (Tousignant and Miller, "Lorena" A16).
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Romano, Lois. "Spokesman Gives Verdict on Bobbitt, Says Client Will Need Legal Guardian." Buffalo News 27 Mar. 1994: A4.
Safire, William. "On Language: The Horny Dilemma." New York Times 6 Feb. 1994: F10.
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"The Unkindest Cut of All: Enough Already." U.S. News and World Report 116.4 (1994): 14.
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"Woman Admits Setting Husband On Fire." Ottawa Citizen 22 Jan. 1994: 29.
X, Laura. "A Brief Series of Anecdotes about the Backlash Experienced by Those of Us Working on Marital and Date Rape." Journal of Sex Research 31.2 (1994): 151-53.
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