Like Locrine, Pericles
erotizes both political tyranny and corrupted earthly will.
Encouraging the view of Mary's "radical" communism as faddish, the newsreel
erotizes her turn away from capitalism as a "spurning [of] the boys of La Salle Street and the Gold Coast" and capped by a close-up of "the smiling girl kissing the man" (32), who the reader later learns is Erlone, the text's literal red herring (158).
Yet it also reveals how these cultural practices are somewhat contested by the powerful practices of the media, whose (mis)representation of Baianidade often
erotizes and objectifies Afro-Brazilian women and ignores the intricate skills involved in the preparation of Comida de Santo (holy food).
Lacan relates this aggressive tension with narcissism, as "the subject both
erotizes and vies with his own image, since it constitutes the ideal perfection which the subject does not have" (Chiesa 2007: 20).