Critical Analysis
Modern Feminism
At the center of this essay, The Laugh of the Medusa is representative of many of the ideals that are crucial to modern feminism. As this is a piece from the second wave of feminism, sexual liberation and disruption to the patriarchy are some of the major topics that Cixous touches upon. While this is still relevant to the fight of feminism, the scope of feminist discourse is so much broader today.
One point that holds up today is Cixous's discussion of intersectionality. It is important to keep in mind that this terminology did not exist at the time, but Cixous's inclusion of the "universal woman" speaks to what this branch of feminism represents (1524) . Cixous states:
"There is, at this time, no general woman, no one typical woman. What they have in common I will say. But what strikes me is the infinite richness of their individual constitutions: you can't talk about a female sexuality, uniform, homogeneous, classifiable into codes- any more than you can talk about one unconscious resembling another." (1524)
Intersectionality is defined as “the complex, cumulative manner in which the effects of different forms of discrimination combine, overlap, or intersect” (Merriam-Webster). In this quote, Cixous is demonstrating how individual experiences and identities exist under the umbrella of womanhood. Another important point that applies to intersectionality is Cixous's mention that female writing does not have to be written by a
biological female. She warns against "confus[ing] the biological and the cultural" and states that writing is instead said to represent masculine or feminine attributes (1524). By this, Cixous means that this "libidinal femininity" can be found in any text and it does not matter the gender of the author (1522). This applies to intersectionality because this point can also be interpreted as support for the trans community. Though intersectionality is a newer theory, Cixous's acknowledgement of differing experiences with femininity stands out from the second wave feminist texts that would now be labeled as "white feminism".
​
However, another aspect to consider is that the feminine body does not function the same cross-culturally. Aneja aruges in her essay "The Medusa's Slip" that Cixous only discusses the body "according to western psychoanalytical practices and imposes this essence on all women" (Aneja 61). Cixous is writing from a eurocentric point of view and does little to combat this in her writing. It is important to remain sensitive to how others experience the world, whether that be through race, class, sexuality, or geolocation.
"A woman must put herself into the text- as into the world and into history- by her own movement"
- Hélène Cixous
Essentialism
Though there are elements of Cixous's work that are applicable to feminism today, this does not mean that her theory is infallible. One of the main points brought against "The Laugh of the Medusa" is use of essentialism. In philosophy, this is the belief that things, such as social groups or identities, have set characteristics that make them what they are. Aneja characterizes Cixous's use of this as "manifesting some kind of essential feminine by placing the body at the heart of a definition of feminine writing" (Aneja 61). This ties back to Aneja's earlier point on the eurocentric understanding of the
female body, as not all women fit within the guidelines of Cixous's theory. On the other hand, Barbara Freeman argues that "the body lies not outside culture but is always implicated within it, and that the body appears not prior to the text but is textually enmeshed" (Freeman 59). She does not read Cixous's work as placing the body at the origin of female writing, but instead culture shapes how the body is understood and therefore written about.