Loud Ladies: Deterritorialising Femininity through Becoming-Animal

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 505-521
Author(s):  
Bethany Morris
Keyword(s):  
Pussy Riot ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Feminine Subject ◽  
Feminist Movements

Modern feminist movements run the risk of being appropriated by capitalist agenda and commodified for mass appeal, thus stripping them of their revolutionary potential. I would propose that in order for feminism to challenge this, movements may want to consider the subversion of subjectivity. Deleuze and Guattari's notions of becoming-animal and becoming-woman emphasise a subjectivity not confined by rigid identity, such as man/woman. However, feminists have challenged this theory, suggesting it is difficult to both fight for and dispel the very same notion, that is, woman. I argue that in first considering the feminine subject via the Lacanian understanding of ‘Woman’, it can be argued that feminine subjects can engage with becoming-animal to destabilise the notion of ‘Woman’. Riot Grrls, FEMEN and Pussy Riot all demonstrate tactics which could be said to utilise becoming-animal and have had varying success in avoiding commodification.

“I can be your Tinder nightmare”: Harassment and misogyny in the online sexual marketplace

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Scripts ◽  
Online Harassment ◽  
Discursive Analysis ◽  
Dating Apps ◽  
Sexual Rejection ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Feminine Subject ◽  
Feminist Poststructuralist ◽  
Feminist Work

On Instagram, the accounts Bye Felipe and Tinder Nightmares feature screen-grabbed messages of sexist abuse and harassment women have received from men on dating apps. This paper presents a discursive analysis of 526 posts from these Instagrams. Utilising a psychosocial and feminist poststructuralist perspective, it examines how harassing messages reproduce certain gendered discourses and (hetero)sexual scripts, and analyses how harassers attempt to position themselves and the feminine subject in interaction. The analysis presents two themes, termed the “not hot enough” discourse and the “missing discourse of consent”, which are unpacked to reveal a patriarchal logic in which a woman's constructed “worth” in the online sexual marketplace resides in her beauty and sexual propriety. Occurring in response to women's exercise of choice and to (real or imagined) sexual rejection, it is argued these are disciplinary discourses that attempt to (re)position women and femininity as sexually subordinate to masculinity and men. This paper makes a novel contribution to a growing body of feminist work on online harassment and misogyny. It also considers the implications for feminist theorising on the link between postfeminism and contemporary forms of sexism, and ends with some reflections on strategies of feminist resistance.

Divine Women? Irigaray, God, and the Subject

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-125
Author(s):  
Susan Hekman
Keyword(s):  
Female Subject ◽  
Process Theology ◽  
Luce Irigaray ◽  
Western Tradition ◽  
Feminist Literature ◽  
Men I ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Feminine Subject

One of the central themes of contemporary feminist literature is the exclusion of the female subject from the Western tradition. Luce Irigaray has made significant contributions to this literature. In this article I examine one aspect of Irigaray’s work on the feminine subject, her discussion of divine women. She argues that in order to achieve full subjectivity women must worship a female god that will give them the divinity that they lack, the divinity that the patriarchal god provides for men. I argue that this thesis is both counterproductive and incoherent. It perpetuates the male/female binarism that is at the root of patriarchy. It also fails to define the concept of a female god which is at the centre of Irigaray’s argument. I conclude that the approach of process theology is much more successful in removing the maleness of God and providing women with a deity compatible with feminist beliefs.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document