"VIEWPOINT The Laugh of the Medusa" is a 1976 article written by Helene Cixous--for Signs, published by the University of Chicago Press that suggests an academic audience in mind- dealing with the the language of women's writing, how that potential of such writing can allow women to write herself in a dominating masculine world. Basically, as a way to put sexual opposition into academic material, Cixous believes that women should put themselves "into the text-as into the world and into history-by her own movement" (Reading About Writing, 247) as a chance to "fall apart upon discovering that women aren't men" (253) and be free of sexual modesty to the other gender to a return of both their sexual ideals and bodies. Once that liberation sets in, where a form of insurgent writing "will allow her to carry out the indispensable ruptures and transformations in her history" (250), then the "desire for a 'loving desire' and not a jealous one" (258), or a "desire the other for that is, everything that lives, and wanting it alive" (258) can allow expose the purity of the expansive mind of the female mind, letting them write for themselves; "your body is yours, take it" (248) in her own words.
It is that topic of allowing women to have the freedom of sexual tensions that only explains one of the main points that makes Cixous's article; an article based on an influential statement of feminist theory. But in comparison with other writers on the topic, the idea of the female "body without end, without appendage, without principal 'parts'" (256) might be too much text to accept for some gender to accept; the central construct the gender relationship males and females have in regards to others around them might have answers to solve, but the attitudes that form each gender is hindering us from the security of other genders--such as being in an wide social audience of both male and female--that can truly understand the pure identify of those genders. Some writers even reject this line of thinking, opting instead to analyze techniques that define other discourse communities as a way to understand "an expansive notion of gender that prompts us to question restrictive norm and categories" (202) both as a political and personal creation of individuals inside certain community. Others, meanwhile, do see the differences that define each gender, but instead of pleading for liberation away from one group, there is a sense of communication within different sets of gender; instead of looking at the "incomparable intensity" (254) that define the gender, there should be a self-awareness of the gender inequality that can result in thinking about questions that never ignore the "suppression of women's separate ways of thinking and writing" (162). Yet, no matter how these studies are seen, the goal of women fighting "the torment of getting up to speak" (250) against any kind of already established discourses forms the central foundation of gender studies, and the writing's job is to provide those of opposite sexes an opportunity to see perspective they might never considered before, or else they are doomed to ignorance of the "infinite and mobile complexity" of more sexual studies.
Did such studies make me uncomfortable, such as the usage of Freud's theories in Cixious's article? On the contrary, I actually felt at ease with Cixous's article, and if anything, I felt like I had a general understanding of where she was going, regardless on how graphic some of text was. Reading the article for myself, the subject material that might cause a question of being uncomfortable was not the core of the article--it was all about the construction of a particular gender, and as a way to explain the inner mind, such material is needed. It explained how one gender sees her own character, using theories that appeal to her own self while pondering about what attracts herself, and that soul-searching by any means necessary always get my attention. Same principle applies to seeing a level of discomfort of the text itself; it is needed to further expand the mindset of one writer--that is, women escaping the demands man has dominated over--whenever or not on how one sees the crudeness of using certain ideas or not.
So what happens when women are given a chance to write themselves? What does it mean for the to write themselves? It all relates back to the freedom that can be earned; a chance to speak in a voice "is no longer suppressed, its point turned in against your breast, but written out over against the other" (254). It might bring fear towards others, but the purity of that expression is enough to grab attention in some circles of ideological groups, who might notice the "element which never stops resonating, which, once we've been permeated by it, profoundly and imperceptibly touched by it, retains the power of moving us" (251) and plea with others to pay attention to that freedom. Once that freedom is seen, the identify of the female writers will be realized by the "decensored relation of women to her sexuality, to her womanly being, giving her access to her native strength" (250) and thrive into a mythos far beyond any female could ever dream of.
That sense of women overcoming adversity and finding a way to becoming themselves, all in all, is what made this article particularly interesting to me. I am delighted that I got a chance to look into writing that gives me an opportunity to expand upon my knowledge of what exactly constitutes the female gender and how, again, it is the virtuous feelings women always have to challenge among others, their relations, and themselves that define their search for facing against loneliness as a respond to certain groups and work towards something greater. Only then can that search bring into the fact that "the continent is not impenetrably dark" (253) and allow myself to join their quest into a richer self based not on surface quirks that is near to us, but on deeper characterizations that defines on what we see ahead of us, to truly see who we are. And it is Cixous's writing that helped me realized that clearly, making me all the more socially active for knowing these topics.
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