“One is not born a woman, but rather becomes one.” - Simone de Beauvoir
This is because one is born a girl.
“Strictly speaking, “women” cannot be said to exist.” - Julia Kristeva
I’m sure this was a deep thought in the shower but I stand here existing.
“Woman does not have a sex.” - Luce Irigaray
Another deep thought that equates women with the limitations imposed by language.
“The deployment of sexuality…established this notion of sex.” — Michel Foucault
I’m not in the habit of quoting open male pedophiles to back up my points…
“The category of sex is the political category that founds society as heterosexual.” - Monique Wittig
Another “deep” thought. I think lesbians know what sex means just as well as straight women but I’m also not in the habit of infantilizing gay people.
It doesn’t take long for this book to devolve into pseudo intellectual “faffery” of a very similar kind to the types of droning you’ll read in a Foucault book. If we torture the words enough, surely we’ll be able to figure out just how we can fool God into allowing us to continue on in our sinful ways. With that squared away, all life will become a celebration of the worst, most selfish versions of ourselves.
Just what does representation mean? Any woman or Black person could tell you in an instant what this term means, if they’re being honest.
“The very subject of women is no longer understood in stable or abiding terms.” - Judith Butler, Gender Trouble Chapter 1
This is something only someone in a position of profound privilege would even think to say. The amount of belly-button staring required to arrive at this conclusion is embarrassing. Mothers, daughters, and sisters know who they are. Women know who they are. Why are we letting someone blur the boundary lines of womanhood when they don’t seem to know the first thing about expressing femininity with words?
If you don’t see how the blurriness of the subject (woman) is due to the glory of the creation outshining the power of language, why are you talking about womanhood or women at all? Just say you think the failure of language to be able to account for the majesty of women is the result of some fault intrinsic to women and move on. This garbage is so exhausting.