Irigaray an Essentialist or not Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Irigaray an Essentialist or not - Essay Example She observes that women have been traditionally excluded from history of philosophy and psychoanalytic theories, only being related to other categories of the nature and matter instead. This denies women an opportunity to gain their own female subject position, which is distinguishable from the aspects of nature and matter (Fuss, 63). According to her, in the concept of philosophy, psychoanalytic theory and linguistic structure, a separate female position and identity does not exist, and thus women only gain subjectivity, when being associated with men. It is on the basis of this fact that she advocates for the concept of mimesis, which allows the members of a social group to come together, despite their differences, to take the advantage of the similarity that they exude, and forge a common identity, which would allow them to achieve certain goals (Fuss, 58). This advocacy requires women to take the advantage of the femininity, and forge an identity that they apply to push for recog nition and advocate for their rights, whenever they feel that such rights are not easily granted. Through the observation that women has no distinct subject position from that of nature and matter, Irigaray goes further to subject the stereotypes that are often given about women to scrutiny, to analyze such subjective views and put them into perspective (Fuss, 64). This is perceived through the lens of philosophy history and language. She upholds that women are not subjected to real views of themselves, and thus they should apply the views they are subjected to, to deny the stereotypes and show their true position. Therefore, if women are stereotyped to be illogical, then they should speak and act logically, so that they can disapprove that notion (Fuss, 71). She holds the view that negative prejudices and views against women cannot be overcome by merely ignoring the views, rather through confronting and demystifying the views in a more