gender studies

Luce Irigaray says, “Man and woman, woman and man are therefore always meeting as though for the first time since they cannot stand in for one another. I shall never take the place of a man, never will a man take mine. Whatever identifications are possible, one will never exactly fill the place of the other.” Irigaray argues that sexual difference is a “gap between man and woman” and is interested in investigating it because so far the confusion over sexual difference has been “filled instead with attraction, greed, possession, consummation, disgust, etc” rather than harmony and understanding.

Irigaray differs from the feminist criticism construct we have created thus far because she is not so much arguing for equality for women as Simone de Beauvoir does in “The Second Sex” but rather harmony between the sexes, despite their differences. Simone de Beauvoir and the feminist criticism we’ve been discussing do not acknowledge fundamental differences, even biological ones, between men and women. I think Irigaray takes a risk by acknowledging differences between the sexes because some may say she is not a feminist.

However, Irigaray argues that there is a natural harmonic relationship between the sexes who, biologically, require certain differences to exist, and because they need each other they are equal. In this way, Irigaray’s thinking does overlap with the construct understood in our class thus far because she is still arguing for equality, that fundamental notion that drives marginalized groups in society to work together and form movements, such as the feminist movement.

Judith Butler’s feminism relies on queer theory to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of categorizing gender according to the sexuality of either man or woman. Her interest lies in investigating “how sexuality is regulated through the policing and shaming of gender.” She points out that homophobia often operates through “the attribution of damaged, failed, or otherwise abject gender to homosexuals, that is calling gay men ‘feminine’ or calling lesbians ‘masculine.’” Butler recognizes the many variations of human sexuality and believes that gender is socially constructed. She says, “For, if to identify as a woman is not necessarily to desire a man, and if to desire a woman does not necessarily signal the constituting presence of masculine identification, then the heterosexual matrix proves to be an imaginary logic.” In other words, man and woman are often thought of as necessary opposites. A woman is traditionally someone who desires a man, and a man is someone who traditionally desires a woman. However, homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgender individuals demonstrate the break down of this thinking. Even a homophobe will agree that a lesbian is a woman, and to agree means that the traditional construction of gender is insufficient.

Butler’s feminism varies from the feminist construct we’ve developed in class thus far because it deals with all women, gay, straight, or bisexual, and it is more concerned with the process and damage of gender construction than the polarized world between men and women. However, some of her ideas do overlap the traditional feminism we’ve been dealing with, because she is concerned with women’s issues.