AsToldByGinger, Cixous and Butler

In these feminist readings Cixous and Butler take different approaches in attempts to explain the roots of societal views on women and feminism.

Cixous discusses the inherent "dual, hierarchal oppositions" that we as a society and human race have used since the beginning of time. - "Activity/Passivity, Sun/Moon, Culture/Nature, Day/Night" (C 157). She says that through these comparisons breeds one victor, which always is subject to man. Although I'm not exactly sure what she means by this, I know what she means by saying that hierarchies usually lead to men.

Cixous then goes on to explain bisexuality which she believes to be something that empowers woman, because it disrupts man. "A man is always proving something; he has to 'show off,' show up the others. masculine profit is almost always mixed up with a success that is socially defined" (C 161).

Butler then goes over how woman has become oppressed culturally and states, "The political assumption that there must be a universal basis for feminism, one which must be found in an identity assumed to exist cross-culturally, often accompanies the notion that the possession of women has some singular form discernible in the universal or hegemonic structure of patriarchy or masculine domination"(C 193). This statement reminded me of the different extremes of how women are treated in different societies, from terrible in the Middle East, to very well in matriarchal societies in Latin America. I think this quote highlights the importance of recognizing these differences, in order to correctly address them - it cannot be assumed that all societies are the same, or that we treat women the same either.