debate with abstract ideas

Unlike the feminist readings that we have read so far, those of Cixous and Irigaray use their insights to a far deeper extent, if not too abstract. Instead of stating paternalism as the origin of the ‘burden’ or the ‘fate’ that have been imposed upon women, they talk about certain problems in particular ideas that influenced and or, to be blamed for the society solely governed by paternalism.

Cixous states that there was a problem with the way of ordering in which sexual difference was organized “by oppositions.” She mentions of logocentrism as the origin of the notion of “two-term system” by which the relationship between two sexes became “the couple.” The nature of “the couple” being that in which one was to be destroyed by another, it was, more or less, a war-like. Therefore, in this state, “male privilege” was to be the victor who was then sustained by another. As she mentions, “the philosophical constructs itself starting with the abasement of woman,” and “What would become of logocentrism, of the great philosophical system, of world order in general if the rock upon which they founded their church were to crumble,” one can note that male domination is deeply rooted and originated from the way logocentrism and philosophy have been built in the first place.

Irigaray shares similar notion with Cixous in terms of the origin of the issue of sexual difference. She mentions the idea of “space and “time” and explains that the idea of the very beginning of formation of the world was somehow changed into that of man and woman through which woman signified as “space” which was “exterior”, that is, being passive, while man signified as “time,” which then becomes “interior”, controlling the activities of the world. And as opposed to the way in which the relationship between man and woman was to be filled with wonder and attraction that were pure and neutral and no threatening in any ways, there were “greed, possession, consummation, disgust, etc” that filled the relationship, destroying what was to be equal and free. As she says, “Wonder cannot seize, possess or subdue such an object,” sexual difference between man and woman in the society has been misguided and faultily constructed.