Elmo, Cixous

There has always been the debate, or discussion, about the differences between men and women; about equality and about their binary opposition. An interesting quote from Cixous is when she says, “through dual, hierarchical oppositions. Superior/inferior. Myths, legends, books. Philosophical systems. Everywhere (where) ordering intervenes, where a law organizes what is thinkable by oppositions (dual, irreconcilable; or sublatable, dialectical). And all these pairs of opposions are couples “ (157). I found this quote to be particularly interesting and particularly good at explaining the relationship between males and females. There always seems to be this sort of competition between the two, there always has been. The words of “superior” and “inferior” make it seem that one is better than the other, usually the male. This is very peculiar because other words, which oppose each other such as, light/dark, and day/night, don't seem to compete with each other. Why then, do male/female have to constantly be in competition? Why can’t they be seen as two unique entities on their own? Cixous touches on many unique and interesting aspects of masculinity and femininity and the struggle they have with one another. It seems that Cixous is trying to prove or debate about the fact that females should be seen as a neutral opposition to the male such as night is to day. I found this article to raise a lot of interesting points along these lines and am curious to see what everyone else got from the article. I think our class is going to spark a lot of great, intellectual conversation about this topic. Can’t wait!