ChittyChittyBangBang Cixous & Butler

These readings really played off of each other and were nice to analyze together. Cixous and Butler both examined the social constructions of sex, gender, and desire. Both readings were very compelling and gave insight on man and woman's perceptions of themselves and each other. Both authors focus on the nature of femininity and Butler focuses more on the politics of feminism.
Cixous's reading was really interesting. I was really intrigued by her definitions of "bisexuality". "Bisexuality - that is to say the location within oneself of the presence of both sexes, evident and insistent in different ways according to the individual, the nonexclusion of difference or of a sex, and starting with this 'permission' one gives oneself, the multiplication of the effects of desire's inscription on every part of the body and the other body" (159). I always viewed bisexual as purely sex driven. I never imagined that it could also stand for women connecting with both sexes on more than just a sexual level. Men on the other hand do not have the same mentality.
In Cixous's reading she brings up the main fear men as a culture have: femininity. "But at the same time, man has been given the grotesque and unenviable fate of being reduced to a single idol and clay balls. And terrified of homosexuality, as Freud and his followers remark. Why does man fear being a woman? Why this refusal (Ablehnug) of femininity?" (159). Men typically become homophobic in order to establish themselves as masculine. Men are so afraid to be seen as passive or feminine in our culture. Why is like this? Why do the media type any feminine qualities in a man as "gay"? Why is it bad for men to have these types of qualities anyways?
Why can women have masculine traits and appreciate both types of sexes and men cannot? Why is there this double standard of acceptance? Our social constructions have made society think this way and it saddens me.
The quotes at the beginning of Butler’s article were striking to me. "Strictly speaking, 'women' cannot be said to exist", "Woman does not have a sex"... The word woman carries so many meanings. This reminds me Derrida and how at the root of every word there is only difference. I suppose women want to be equal to men and by being differentiated by the word, women, has lowered us in society. "There is a great deal of material that not only questions the viability of 'the subject' as the ultimate candidate for representation or, indeed, liberation, but there is very little agreement after all on what is it that constitutes, or ought to constitute, the category of women" (192). Words carry a great deal of power and feminists are working towards regulating gender relations.
Both of these authors have very stimulating views on representations of femininity. I think the biggest task at hand is equating men and women so that both sexes can have qualities of both-appreciate both femininity and masculinity.