In “The Laugh of the Medusa” French feminist Hélène Cixous writes about “écriture féminine” and invite women to write about themselves and to reclaim their bodies. She takes into account psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud’s terms but disagrees with his idea of men being more valuable than women because they have a penis. She also opposes that there is a typical woman and argues that all women have “individual constitutions” (876). Many feminists as Cixous criticize Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual development theory which revolves around the Oedipus complex because he does not accept a women sexuality independent from men and considers female sexuality a “dark continent” (Gilligan, 1984). The founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud explains his psychosexual
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She thinks that women have been pushed away from literature as same as from their bodies and they should bring themselves into literature again by their own effort (875). She believes that writing is the only way for women to reach their sexual identity and that they can only discover the repressed femininity in their subconscious by writing. However, she continues to explain that women feel guilty while writing, as when they masturbate, because they were not allowed to write (877). Claiming that women have been pushed into the dark by men and forced to accept the situation, she blames men for moving women away from each other and leading to hate themselves (878). She opposes phallogocentrism and asserts that feminine writing through the exploration of female body will overcome phallogocentrism and change the way people think. She refuses to consider women sexuality the dark continent and defends that it is not discovered because women have been forced to believe that “it was too dark to be explorable” (885). “The Laugh of the Medusa” can be considered a manifesto for women to believe in themselves and start to take place in writing community with their own bodies. Cixous believes that women should reclaim their bodies to set themselves and their imaginations free
She thinks that women have been pushed away from literature as same as from their bodies and they should bring themselves into literature again by their own effort (875). She believes that writing is the only way for women to reach their sexual identity and that they can only discover the repressed femininity in their subconscious by writing. However, she continues to explain that women feel guilty while writing, as when they masturbate, because they were not allowed to write (877). Claiming that women have been pushed into the dark by men and forced to accept the situation, she blames men for moving women away from each other and leading to hate themselves (878). She opposes phallogocentrism and asserts that feminine writing through the exploration of female body will overcome phallogocentrism and change the way people think. She refuses to consider women sexuality the dark continent and defends that it is not discovered because women have been forced to believe that “it was too dark to be explorable” (885). “The Laugh of the Medusa” can be considered a manifesto for women to believe in themselves and start to take place in writing community with their own bodies. Cixous believes that women should reclaim their bodies to set themselves and their imaginations free