Sexual or Sexuate difference? Irigary has coined the term sexuate to refer to the biological differences between women and men that are not of a strictly sexual (pertaining to the sexual act) nature. What is an ethics of sexuate difference? In part, it is the recognition of the biological differences between women and men without reducing us to restrictive, oppressive and traditional notions of femininity and masculinity. It is our very sexuate differences, namely the female capacity to menstruate, to create life through birth (and if we choose, end it with abortion), and the power of the female orgasm/female sexuality that lie at the heart of female oppression and male dominance and control. However, by mentioning our obvious biological differences, some would criticize me as being essentialist. Within this viewpoint, essentialism is erroneously believed to mean that women are restricted to and defined by their biological functions of birthing and mothering, when it is quite the contrary. Instead it is an honoring, a deep recognition of the profound relationship between women’s menstrual cycles and the lunar cycle, tidal ebb and flow and agricultural cycles. It is an expression of the deep interconnection between women and the cosmos.
The hormonal reality of our female natures are essential issues. (In fact, even the biological structure of a female hormone resembles a yoni!) And yet, essentialism has become an ugly, virtually forbidden word within many feminist circles. I choose to reclaim the essence of this word and embrace and celebrate the hormonal reality of my female body.
Female biology and physiology gives women entrance into states of awareness that are not accessible to men. This does not mean that men do not and cannot have their own altered states experiences, but there needs to be a respected, female-governed space within society where strictly female biological or physiological experiences such as menstruation, the power to give (pregnancy) or take (abortion) life that shift our consciousness and deeply influence the ways we as women see and experience the world are under the control of women and not the government or even our fathers or husbands. Whether or not women choose to have children, each month we are deeply affected by our hormonal cycles. Experiencing altered states naturally opens women in ways that go beyond rational thought and logical explanations for life. Menstruation, pregnancy and birth, quintessentially female states, can heighten intuition, induce visions and premonitions, bring tremendous healing powers, and allow one to communicate with animals, and even spirits and beings from other realms. This is female power. These are some very essential sexuate differences…JAI MA.
4 comments:
At first I cringed in reading this post as I thought this was going to be yet another piece of women's writing focusing on our breasts, ovaries, vulva, vagina, menstruation, etc. as if this is all there is to write about being a woman (I lept into the feminist camp against essentialism). As a woman who has chosen to create life, give birth through creative expression and not by bearing children, and as a woman who has gone through a time when I worked to embrace and to ritualize my period but then came to a point where I just didn't want to make such a big freakin' deal of it as it felt like I had to be defined by my period, I experience feelings of exasperation and even anger when encountering writing after writing by women so focused on our biology - as if this is all we have to write about.
THEN, you wrote "the profound relationship between women's menstrual cycles and the lunar cycle, tidal ebb and flow and agricultural cycles." I don't encounter enough women's writing that really "gets" this connection because too few of us actually have a connection to Nature or to a deep intellectual grasp of what this connection really means. I often find poems or essays about these connections to be "lite,", "trite," or sentimental. You write about this connection in a way that stimulates me, inspires me to explore this connection more intelligently and intuitively through my own poetry. You write about this connection in a way that doesn't make me cringe or get frustrated, or want to reject it altogether!
I think, though, what needs to be written are real experiences from women who actually have experienced the powers you write of, whether through natural childbirth, or via our monthly cycles - how many feminist women actually pay attention to what happens to them during hormonal cycles - or make time/room to allow visions, creativity, etc. to occur, and then write/paint/sculpt/dance to show us what is possible? But for me, I want to read, experience this sharing in a way that is not sentimental, romanticized, full of new age hyperbole, or just plain sounds/feels unbelievable.
More thought: I also think it is crazy for Feminism to abandon talking about or acknowledging our biological differences - this to me feels like Feminism embracing patriarchy. When I discovered that the Feminist Majority was embracing Lybrel as progress for women, I was pissed. See my post about this.
mmmmhmmm. as a menstruating ecofeminist fan attracted to genderfuckers and trannys but sad about anyone with a womb not feeling wombpower i really like that way of framing this difference and the word: sexuate. yes. our minds have travelled similar thought pathways. my very beloved sociology of women professor from back in the day would have loved having you in her class.
A. the term 'tranny' is a slur.
B. not all women.
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