Disparate Thoughts on Sexuality and Image, to be Resolved Later

In my last post I wrote about Bloom’s discerning, almost feminine eye...

I guess that could come across as vague...

In class, we’ve briefly alluded to his obssession with sexuality, yet we haven’t discussed it thoroughly. It is a complex subject, as well as one that I don’t feel I have the life experience to really go into in depth--

However, I do know what it is to be a high school student obssessed with fashion.

Bloom reminds me of a high school student obssessed with fashion.

Perhaps the most striking example of this comes when he discourses with his ex-girlfriend. He manages to maintain a somewhat intelligent conversation with her, yet throughout it he finds hiumself occupied with the estimation of the number of years in which she has worn her dress.
And later, throughout the book, he assesses and evaluates the attire of the men and women he encounters...

I don’t want to make the assumpton that the reader assumes the visual is sexual, but I do think that this is a question I would like to explore.

Fashion showcases the body, and Bloom is aware of this.

Throughout the novel, he notices the details of attire:

“Blazes Boylan’s smart tan shoes creaked on the barfloor where he strode.”

“A hackney car, number three hundred and twentyfour, driver Barton James of number one Harmony avenue, Donnybrook, on which sat a faire, a young gentleman, stylishly dressed in an indigoblue serge suit made by George Robert Mesias, tailor and cutter, of number five Eden quay, and wearing a straw hat very dressy, bought of John Plasto of number one Great Brunswick street, hatter. Eh? This is the jingle that joggled and jingled.” 279

These are some examples of Bloom’s discerning eye that come to mind. He notices the cut of a dress, and the brand of a shoe; he notices the nuances of personal style that distinguish the women he evaluates-- the way they put themselves together.

His assessments are often read as misogynist by critics, but I think that this rings a bit hollow .

I think that, for Bloom, the image is sexual. I think that a certain aesthetic attracts him-- and I think that the look of his own wife repulses him; her weight is a point of contention with him.

“Got big then.”

He writes this in reminiscence of a concert that she missed because of her pregancy withg their son. I think that this observation is significant, in that it is singular; there is no parallel observation of a pre-natal weight gain that accompanied Milly’s birth, and so I think that this refers to a general weight gain that is unrelated to a pregnancy.

I think that Bloom’s attraction to his wife is predominantly physical, but not in a sexual way-- rather, I think that he is attached to her, but that she is more of a comfort to him than a provocation of sexual desire.