Response to "VIEWPOINT The Laugh of the Medusa"

            In her article “VIEWPOINT The Laugh of the Medusa”, Helene Cixous argues that women need to write as women. This means that she believes that women should write with a voice of their own. Cixous explains to us that women are being oppressed by men’s literature, and that the world of literacy is ruled by men, for men. She states that women should be able to write as themselves and that when they do this they will feel more free to themselves.
            This article relates to Elizabeth Flynn’s article “Composing as a Woman” in that both articles deal with writing varying from males to females. The difference between the articles is that Cixous doesn’t really seem to care for men’s writing, in fact it seems as though she believes that men writing is evil. Cixous says men have “made for a woman an antinarcissism!” (248) and “the infamous logic of antilove.” (248)
            The article also relates to Jonathan Alexander’s article “Transgender Rhetorics: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gendered Body”. In his article he talks about transgender theories; helping others understand transgendered ideals. With Cixous’ article she discusses feminist theories, but instead of helping me understand a woman’s perspective it seems she just wants women to write.
            This article was a good read. I didn’t really like it, but the way it was written definitely helped keep my attention. I feel as if Cixous could not have expressed herself any better, but it also felt like half the things I was reading was just jumbled-up emotion that didn’t really help her argument. Overall: good read, but her argument could be put into better light.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

1.)

            This piece did not make me uncomfortable. It kind of made me annoyed. Yea, the writing was good, but her ideals just seem way too feminist for me. I think she should be able to believe in whatever she wants to, but I don’t think hating a group of people (in this case men).  I do think that Cixous was trying to create a certain level of discomfort for the reader. This creates a certain ‘shock value’ which grabs peoples attention. I think that can be a good strategy in writing sometimes, but I don’t feel that it worked me, it just kind of (as said earlier) made me annoyed.

2.)
            When Cixous tells her female readers to ‘write themselves’ I think she means that they should not conform to standards when they write. They should go all out in their writing. This then really shows your identity. If you ‘write yourself’ (go all out in writing) you reveal, on paper, your raw self. It is the perfect representation of one’s identity.