The Praying Mantis in Man’s Club

Abstract

This paper aims to use the praying mantis as a starting point to explore Salvador Dali’s ambivalent treatments toward women. As we all know, the mantis is one of the Surrealists’ favorite metaphors for the devouring woman. In this paper, the author will borrow Salvador Dali’s paranoia-critical interpretation of Jean- Francois Millet’s Angelus and The Great Masturbator, to argue that the Surrealists tend to treat woman as an object of their masculine dreams of femininity, instead of as a subject and autonomous individual. The way the Surrealists treat the praying mantis can somehow reflect males’ ambivalence toward females. In Surrealism, the man’s club, women closet to male Surrealists like Dora Maar and Jacqueline Lamba are subjects in Picasso and Breton’s masterpieces, but only serve as the stimulators for their imagination to dream in their masculine dream. It is pathetic that the concept of “woman†has always been objectified by male needs.