HLNE

CIXOUS

She found Derridas concept of diffrance and his

rejection of binary thought very useful.
In applying Derridas notion of diffrance to
writing, she contrasted feminine writing (lcriture
fminine) with masculine writing (littrature).
Masculine writing has reigned supreme over
feminine writing. In the words of Ann Rosalind
Jones, man (white, European, and ruling class)
has claimed, I am the unified, self-controlled
center of the universe. The rest of the world,
which I define as the Other, has meaning only in
relation to me, as man/father, possessor of the
phallus.

Cixous has objected to masculine writing and

thinking because they are cast in binary
oppositions.
Dichotomous Pairs
Activity/Passivity
Sun/Moon

Day/Night
High/Low

Cixous challenged women to write themselves out of

the world men constructed for women.
By developing feminine writing, women can, she
insisted, change the way the Western world thinks,
speaks, and acts.

MICHEL
FOUCAULT

Power relations and discourses shape our

subjectivities, sexualities, and bodies.
We are, said Foucault, literally policed by
societys discourse about sexuality.
To further understand this, we will look at a
specific example.

Cosmetic

Surgery
In particular, Kathryn Pauly Morgan, Naomi Wolf,
and Debra Gimlin, for example, have argued that
cosmetic surgery is a negative and harmful aspect of
Western culture and is something that generally runs
counter to the feminist stance on the female body.

For Morgan, cosmetic surgery is primarily selfimposed surveillance of the body under
patriarchal power . . . a form of colonization of
womens bodies.
Debra Gimlin observed that cosmetic surgery is
not about controlling ones own body but is
instead an activity so extreme, so invasive that it
can only be interpreted as subjugation.
Women result to self-surveillance. This selfsurveillance is a form of obedience to patriarchy.