Volume V (2022) (2015)
Laugh of the Medusa , Cixous claims,
I write this as a woman, toward women. When I say “woman,” I’m speaking of woman in her inevitable struggle against conventional man; and of a universal woman subject who must bring women to their senses and to their meaning in history … I write woman: woman must write woman. And man, man. So only an oblique consideration will be found here of man; it’s up to him to say where his masculinity and femininity are at: this will concern us once men have opened their eyes and seen themselves clearly. 23
Cixous argues the importance of re-writing women, which does not go against nomadic ethics and
third-wave feminism; however, her claims are fixated on the idea of female and male subjects. In
addition, claiming that she is the one who is going to bring women to their senses leaves no room
for the multi-perspectival version of feminism that third-wave feminism encourages.
Moreover, Margaret McLaren argues in favor of the eradication of the subject based on Michael Foucault’s theory. 24 McLaren explains that Foucault’s theory is consistent with feminist
goals since it argues the relationship between knowledge and power, and how they are used as a
form of social control. She explains that Foucault does not reject the subject altogether but refuses a particular formation of the subject, which has been constituted through European morality. 25 By
refusing the subject, individuals are free from the subjectivity that has been imposed throughout
history. I am confident that a neverending deconstruction of all our pre-created ideals on the subject
proposed by Braidotti and third- wave feminism is aligned with Foucault’s view on the matter. As
a result, there is a notion of empowerment that allows individuals to have political and moral agency
since the subject re- claims its subjectivity.
To summarize, Braidotti’s nomadic ethics aligns with third -wave feminism and allows the
empowerment of modern women, and all individuals who fit the category of the Other , since
nomadic ethics separates itself from the normative moral protocols. The European morality
embedded in history has created a fixed dynamic of the sexes and leaves no room for motion and
change. As a result, nomadic theory and third-wave feminism propose a never-ending
deconstruction of all our pre-created concepts on the matter; therefore, the eradication of the female
and male subject. The eradication of the subject allows the individual to emancipate from nature
and history, which have positioned them in fixated roles that have demoralized and oppressed
human beings since the beginning of civilization.
23 Helene Cixous, “The Laugh of the Medusa,” Signs 1, no. 4 (1976), 875, 877. 24 Margaret McLaren, “Foucault and the Subject of Feminism,” 111. 25 Margaret McLaren, “Foucault and the Subject of Feminism,” 112.
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