Rarely have I found any work of non-fiction to be as powerful as Helene Cixous’s The Laugh of Medusa. The forcefulness of the piece—woven throughout the essay—is also embodied in its opening sentence: “I shall speak on women’s writing: about what it will do.” (pg. 880) With such an affirmative, declarative, and commanding first line, you think the reader would be prepared for what is to follow, but that is not the case. Even as she writes, “Woman must put herself into the text…” (pg. 880) providing the reader with the clearest of intentions as to what she will write next (no rhyme intended), we are still not prepared, for what follows is a whirlwind of feminist rhetorical energy in which she actually succeeds in infusing femininity into the sentences and paragraphs creating a style that she terms Woman. “I write woman: woman must write woman.” (pg. 881), she proclaims.
How does she accomplish this feat of writing Woman? Cixous often uses nature as the vessel for her imagery. “I too overflow…” (pg. 881) and “A feminine text cannot fail to be more than subversive. It is volcanic…” (pg. 889) are two examples. Note that these references will not be mistaken for the tranquil side of nature; they are disruptive forces that alter the environment around them, forces that engender change and renewal, rebirth. She hopes her writing will do as much.
Cixous also enlists the help of sexual imagery, imagery that is particularly stirring. She writes “…but you have to split it open, spread it out, push it forward…” (pg. 885) and “Because she arrives, vibrant, over and again…” (pg. 885). These quotes grab the reader firmly by the “clay balls,” so to speak, seizing your attention, and yes, she actually uses the term “clay balls” (pg. 886).
Yet another way in which Cixous writes Woman is through her structure. Like Californian architecture bending slightly to accommodate the tremendous tectonic forces of an earthquake, her sentences sway but don’t break under the force of the ideas she conveys. By this I mean that were it not for the artful rendering of some of her more controversial thoughts we would be immediately put off, our sentiments offended or “broken” if you will. Instead, we are caught up in the beauty of the rhetoric before we accept or dismiss it. For example: “The new history is coming; it’s not a dream, though it does extend beyond men’s imagination, and for good reason. It’s going to deprive them of their conceptual orthopedics, beginning with the destruction of their enticement machine.” (pg. 885) Usually, any discussion of the destruction of my “enticement machine”, whether conceptual or actual, is off limits, and for good reason. However, one can’t help but review this passage a number of times to not only make sure that you are clear on its meaning but also to appreciate its beauty.
There are other passages where she may make men uncomfortable but at the same time appreciative. One such passage is: “Men say that there are two unrepresentable things: death and the feminine sex. That’s because they need femininity to be associated with death; it’s the jitters that gives them a hard-on! for themselves! They need to be afraid of us. Look at the trembling Perseuses moving backward toward us, clad in apotropes. What lovely backs! Not another moment to lose. Let’s get out of here.” (pg. 887) I’m certain that I don’t associate death with feminine sex, and who and where are these men that do. Moreover, I’m offended that she would insinuate that men in general hold such a detestable viewpoint. It gives us a hard-on, indeed! Still, it is written well. There is playfulness at the end of the passage that is a delight to read.
Lastly, Cixous writes Woman by citing an element present in her text that she says is also present in all of feminine communication: song. Her passages have a very lyrical feel to them. She does this through repetition: “…a desire to write: a desire to live self from within, a desire from the swollen belly, for language, for blood.” (pg. 891) And she accomplishes this through poetry as well: “I am for you what you want me to be at the moment you look at me in a way you’ve never seen me before: at every instant.” (pg. 893)
Certainly, what Cixous has accomplished by writing Woman into the wording is that “Beauty will no longer be forbidden.” (pg. 880) To a greater extent, she has embraced and expanded beauty making it more than a traditional, one-dimensional, carnal characteristic, and while beauty will have many more applications, in her work, The Laugh of Medusa, Cixous has made beauty Woman.
