critical theory with slavoj zizek: Nietzsche perceives in Wagner the lack of an erect, assertive, firm male attitude—instead of the clearly structured rhythmic and melodic edifice, his music indulges in the “feminized” attitude of passively submerging into the shapeless ocean of feeling… . This femininity scorned by Nietzsche is the “eternal Feminine,” the phantasmatic support of the actual subordination of women; paradoxically, Nietzsche’s scorn for Wagner’s “feminization” of music is thus much closer to feminism than the Wagnerian elevation of woman as man’s redeemer.