“Feminine” as a new generation in Julia Kristeva’s thought
Msc. Mitjana Profiri
“Fan S. Noli” University, Korce
Faculty of Natural and Human Sciences
Department of Social Sciences
[email protected]
We are at the beginning of the ’21st century and we still have euphoric discussions on the dichotomy man and woman. And more
specifically, on what is considered masculine and what is considered feminine. This is a discussion on the patriarchal system and the
position of woman is seen as part of this reality.
Years ago it is discussed a lot on women’ status. Women used to fight for their demands on some certain notions, like: love, body, sex,
emotions, instincts, motherhood, education, liberty, work, wage, male mentality, discrimination, and civilization. And that is not
enough; it is not all about goals achieved, but this problem stands more, it means sharing our family duties with the men. This doesn’t
mean to elevate women to men, but this could help women at a good combination of a good job with the childcare. Moreover, men
would be more able to participate in raising their children.
This example is a simple fact to show how men’s and women’s situation are interlinked, but also, how improving women’s
situation helps improving men’s as well.
Describing briefly how the feminist movement has been formed from the tradition till now, the main ideas that made this movement to
raise its voice for its own position in the male civilization:

Historically, woman has had a lack of her status.

Usually the figure of a woman has been hindered by the others, but also she has been hindering herself, too.

Making your own project, that makes a woman important. And that is what exactly Simone de Beauvoir wanted to point out,
having the right to make our choices, that is what makes us women.

Home is not any more a central place, and this is, beside many other reasons, because women are looking for their position in
the world, in their personal life, in the construction of their image as a Subject and not as a Predicate any more.
Society has changed, but woman’s nature remains the same: not inferior to man but different. (Fitzsimons, J.,1952:8)
Feminine and masculine characteristics, and also feminine and masculine qualities, are not exclusive (in the way that
feminine characteristics, or qualities, correspond only to women, and male characteristics or qualities are exclusive only for
men. Every man has certain feminine qualities and every woman some masculine characteristics, but the masculine
predominate in the average man and the feminine in the average woman. A world in which all the men were completely
masculine and all the women completely feminine would be intolerable.)
 The first reaction of feminism was the element of the missed balance. Equality and liberty - these demands were
primarily concerned in three main spheres of life in which woman was in subjection and in need of liberation. They were
property, education and political right.
 With all the demands that the feminists movement has raised and achieved in some way, are all the women’s problems
solved, or at least, the lines of solution that have been indicated? This question corresponds to the struggle for freedom
equality which means identity.
The feminist movement was concerned in the idea that women are persons with all the normal human, social and political rights of
human persons. And in many ways women has achieved their goals but they are still struggling in their frustration between work and
home, the frustration to make her way in a masculine civilization.
The problem is to find the woman’s position in the modern world. If the modern woman wants to put a balance, she has to become
conscious wherein her true femininity lies.
In ‘woman’ I see something that cannot be represented, something that is not said, and something above and beyond
nomenclatures and ideologies. (Julia Kristeva)
1. She rejects the first phase because it seeks universal equality and overlooks sexual differences,
2. She criticizes the rejection of motherhood (here mentions Simone de Beauvoir), moreover, it is needed a new discourse of
maternity. When the link between the maternity and the female creation is better understood, then here comes the ‘real female
innovation’. (Moi, T.,‘The Dissident’ in A new Type of Intellectual)
3. She rejects what she sees as the second phase of feminism because it seeks a uniquely feminine language, which she thinks, is
impossible. Kristeva insists that culture and language is the domain of speaking beings and women are primarily speaking
beings.
If the feminine exists, it only exists in the order of signifiance or signifying process, and it is only in relation to meaning and
signification, positioned as their excessive or transgressive other that it exists, speaks, thinks (itself) and writes (itself) for both sexes.
Woman is considered as the “silent other” and placed so in a marginal position in the symbolic order. As an unconscious
person of the symbolic order, woman must disrupt this symbolic chain. How is it possible? Kristeva suggests that:
a) women must not refuse to enter the symbolic order
b) But on the other hand, they should not adopt the masculine model of femininity.
What has been established is that:
1. Women demand equal access to the symbolic order. Here has risen the Liberal Feminism and most developed the
concept of Equality.
2. Then, during history and many struggles, and after some victories, we come to the rejection of the male symbolic order
from women in the name of difference. Here rises the Radical Feminism where femininity is extolled.
3. And here comes the third and newest development from the women position that is the rejecting of a dichotomy
between masculine and feminine as metaphysical. This is the Kristeva’s position where she advocates a deconstructive
approach to sexual difference.
Conclusions
o The first wave of feminism was focused on women’s legal rights, like the right to vote, etc.; the second wave of
feminism touched every area of women’s experience, including: family, sexuality and work. The third wave of
feminism emerged in the mid-1990s. This was the generation born in 1960s-1970s in the developed world. They
possessed significant legal rights and protections that had been obtained by the first and second wave of feminists. In
some way, however, third wave feminism can be viewed as a reaction to the positions and unfinished work of the
second wave feminism. (EBA, 2009)
o Julia Kristeva, gaining some distance from the two preceding generations, brings a new generation that is now forming,
at least in Europe. And by ‘generation’ she doesn’t mean another ‘mass feminist movement’, but a signifying space.
This third generation represents the parallel existence of the three attitudes at the same time or maybe interwoven to
each-other.