Questioning why it is that female genitalia and desire are viewed in psychoanalytic theory as hidden, inaccessible, and lacking, the author examines 1) female genital representation, 2) girls' erotically desirous relationships to their mothers, and 3) the nature of women's experience in sexuality. The author proposes that the marker “absent” regarding female genitalia and desire may be a particular female form of protection against “castration” of sexual desire; males inflate whereas females may deflate their genital representation and desire. The author suggests that the female body lends itself—and, abetted by culture and psychoanalytic theory, is unconsciously used by females—to a specific form of protection of female desire.