'I refuse these givens': Embracing Multiplicity of Identity in the Poetry of Adrienne Rich

Abstract

The world we live in is divided into clearly defined territories and oppositions. Some of these mutually exclusive and hierarchical binary oppositions that spring to mind are Activity/Passivity, Sun/Moon, Culture/Nature, Day/Night, Father/Mother. All these dichotomies spring from the ultimate binary opposition Man/Woman, which is gendered and takes the male as the reference point[1]. The symbolism of Male/Female does not refer to two different halves of humanity, but it has been used to express and maintain the hierarchical and oppositional relationship between the sexes which is divided and based on the subordination of the female, as it is always the feminine side of these oppositions that carries the negative attributes. Such a system of organization takes man as its measure in defining everything, including woman. Luce Irigaray too, like Hélène Cixous, believes that only in a different order of meaning might it be possible to construct a positive representation of feminine identity. This requires the rejection of the ever powerful notion of universal truth, as its universality is a fallacy; it is universal only from the male perspective.