Volume 39, 2023
Polarization, Reconciliation, and Community
Mary Townsend

Pages 35-50
https://doi.org/10.5840/socphiltoday202368100
Beauvoir, Irigaray, and #Me Too
The Language of Subjectivity and Revolution
Simone de Beauvoir remarks that women have trouble articulating a ¡°we¡± together; this foible of language is connected to our unwillingness to claim our subjectivity, and to our ability to say ¡°I¡± in ordinary conversation. The corresponding political difficulty is that the ¡°we¡± of a non-exclusionary women¡¯s solidarity and revolution seems almost impossible to imagine. Luce Irigaray¡¯s paradigm of between-women-talk, best designated as talk amongst women and non-cis-men, offers a way of reforming the language required: a Platonic participation where desire beyond purpose is the only qualification, with #MeToo being one imperfect conversational example. Interrogating our reluctance and hesitation at the possibilities of this conversation makes our need for the language of mutually reinforcing subjectivity clear.