HOLLA! Cixous

Man vs. Woman…why not Woman vs. Man? Father/Mother…Day/Night… Speaking/ Writing…why is it that what comes second represents women? This reading was very wordy and confusing at many points, but I think what Cixous was getting at is this hierarchical structure which compares men to women and where men are at the top. An interesting quote I pulled from the reading was, “Traditionally, the question of sexual differance is treated by coupling it with the opposition: activity/passivity” (158). This quotation is a perfect example of this hierarchical structure and metaphors Cixous is looking at. There is so much to pull from within this reading but I am going to focus on women and writing. As Cixous states, “I will say: today, writing is woman’s” (160). This means that unlike men who keep to themselves (the speakers) and really are one dimensioned emotionally wise, women can admit that there is more to life or there is “another.” I feel Cixous is saying that women have not forgotten who they are or where they came from and they are open to this otherness; writing is a form of allowing women to reach this otherness. Men only gravitate around themselves, their own desires, there is no “other” in their eyes. So a woman being labeled as the weak and passive…maybe this is mans term coined to cover their own insecurities in not recognizing their own otherness. I can tell Cixous believes in the feminist ideas and values, but she brings some blatant and valid points up in the reading that I’ve already addressed. If I had to relate this reading to a previous theorist I’d have to tie her ideas to DeSaussure or Derrida, considering these metaphors are developed by a shared meaning in this case a meaning started from men. The fact that “we” can develop these shared ideas of thought through metaphors shows how much woman are held down and below man hierarchically.