Feminafesto and Taming of the Shrew

I would just like to say that Anne Waldman's statement "You men who came out of my
belly, out of my world, BACK OFF" was really rather amusing. Then it sort of dawned on
me that what she is so annoyed about is when men, who are born of women, grow up to
sometimes look down or discriminate against women. As the article continues, Waldman
asks the question "Is language phallocentric?" (even though in the article it
says "phalloeentric, I just kind of assumed it was supposed to be "centric"). She then
proposes a transsexual literature, which she describes as her "utopian creative field" in
which we are "defined by our energy, not by gender". Waldman believes, in my opinion,
in the concept that sex (gender) is malleable. In our Barker textbook, it says that the
works of Foucault has inspired the argument that femininity and masculinity are
malleable social constructions. Also, on page 294, Nancy Chodorow shows how Freud
demonstrates that "our sexualities are regulated in ways that are particularly costly for
women". I felt that this was obviously one of the reasons why Waldman called for a
transsexual form of literature because it would eliminate the tension and discrimination
between man and woman. I liked how in class (I forgot who said it) someone said that
even the name of the article was trying to remove the masculine influence over
everything by removing "man" from manifesto and inserting "femina". Kristeva seems to
reinforce the notion of malleability by saying that "To believe that one 'is a woman' is
almost as absurd as to believe that 'one is a man'". This means that sexual identity is
not an essence but a matter of representation. A man can be feminine and a woman can
have masculine tendencies. Gender is malleable and is not set in a specific set of rules.
Just as Butler wanted to get rid of any essentialized sex.

I have to sadly admit that I have never read Taming of the Shrew. I have, however,
seen 10 Things I Hate About You many, many times and it supposedly is a modern
adaptation of the Shakespeare play. In class, we discussed the type of language
Katherina uses while giving her speech. The speech was full of words that could easily
have been said by a man. On page 289, Luce Iregaray discusses what she
calls "womanspeak". Womanspeak, in ways, mimes phallocentrism and uses man's
language, but in ways that question the capacity of philosophy to ground its own claims.
I really do think that Kat wasn't tamed per se because she was still a strong woman with
ideas, thoughts, and opinions of her own, but she just now appreciated men a little bit
more.

These chapters and articles on feminism remind me so much of my aunts. After reading
about the different types of feminism, I believe that they fall under the Liberal/Socialist
feminists. I would have to align myself with the post-feminists. I don't deny that women
are sometimes discriminated against, but I'm really kind of sick of women who play
the "victim" card all the time.