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“I’ll Have What She’s Having”: Fake Orgasm, Affectation, and Other S(t)imulations

“I’ll Have What She’s Having”: Fake Orgasm, Affectation, and Other S(t)imulations Rachel GReenspan "I'll Have What She's Having" Fake Orgasm, Affectation, and Other S(t)imulations Affects may dissemble, but they can be very hard to fake. Take, for example, orgasm. Understood as an affect, or a series of intersecting affects bundled under the auspices of a named intensity, orgasm presents useful problems regarding apparent oppositions between simulation and authenticity, intentionality and reflex, fake orgasm and the "real thing." The most iconic representation of fake orgasm in popular American culture is likely Meg Ryan's magisterial performance at Katz's Deli in When Harry Met Sally. Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Ryan) are proud of having defied convention by building a sexless friendship across gender lines, though they both recognize the fragile indeterminacy of such a relation. Sally's fake orgasm begins over sandwiches, precipitated by Harry's apparent callousness toward women: he beds them and leaves them before the sun comes up. Initially, Sally wants to shame Harry for his selfishness in the wake of intimate encounters, denouncing his post-coital flightiness as "a human affront to all women." Then Sally shifts the conversation to fake orgasm, staging an assault on Harry's manhood by disrupting his fantasy of sexual connoisseurship. When Harry defends his late-night http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Comparatist University of North Carolina Press

“I’ll Have What She’s Having”: Fake Orgasm, Affectation, and Other S(t)imulations

Greenspan, Rachel
The Comparatist , Volume 39 (1) – Nov 20, 2015
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University of North Carolina Press
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Copyright © Southern Comparative Literature Association.
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1559-0887
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Abstract

Rachel GReenspan "I'll Have What She's Having" Fake Orgasm, Affectation, and Other S(t)imulations Affects may dissemble, but they can be very hard to fake. Take, for example, orgasm. Understood as an affect, or a series of intersecting affects bundled under the auspices of a named intensity, orgasm presents useful problems regarding apparent oppositions between simulation and authenticity, intentionality and reflex, fake orgasm and the "real thing." The most iconic representation of fake orgasm in popular American culture is likely Meg Ryan's magisterial performance at Katz's Deli in When Harry Met Sally. Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Ryan) are proud of having defied convention by building a sexless friendship across gender lines, though they both recognize the fragile indeterminacy of such a relation. Sally's fake orgasm begins over sandwiches, precipitated by Harry's apparent callousness toward women: he beds them and leaves them before the sun comes up. Initially, Sally wants to shame Harry for his selfishness in the wake of intimate encounters, denouncing his post-coital flightiness as "a human affront to all women." Then Sally shifts the conversation to fake orgasm, staging an assault on Harry's manhood by disrupting his fantasy of sexual connoisseurship. When Harry defends his late-night

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The Comparatist – University of North Carolina Press

Published: Nov 20, 2015

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