Questions & Quotes

337 - “In other words, the category of ‘sex’ is not transparent but is itself a dense weave of cultural significance, and ‘the contrast masculine/feminine,’ as the representation of what psychoanalysts commonly refer to as ‘the anatomical difference,’ addresses a variety of matters, not all of which are germane to sex, gender, or the genitals.” 339 - “ In this process, ‘gender’ appears to be less a determinate category than something resembling a force field. Much like the atom, once thought of as substance but now construed as a set of interacting forces, so gender looks to consist not of essences but of complex and shifting relations among multiple contrasts or differences. Sometimes these contrasts remain distinct, at other times they intersect, and at still other times they fuse and exchange identities. “ 342-343 - “Let me sum up what I have said so far. Taking a deconstructionist tack, I have said that the core of gender is difference, not essence, the relation between masculinity and femininity as culturally conceived, interpersonally negotiated, and intrapsychically experienced. “ 350 - “In other words, I am suggesting that the notion of transitional space can help us comprehend what our theory has heretofore been able to handle only by splitting. Gender identity, born in the space of difference between masculinity and femininity, always retains the marks of its birth. Therefore, although gender identity has come to be seen in developmental theory as finalizing differentiation, I would suggest, counterintuitively, that it does more: at one and the same time gender identity seals the package of self and preserves all the self must lose. It serves to bridge the archaic depths, the Impossible that underlies human creativity (McDougall, 1985,p. 8), and the self, the psychic agency that authors creation. Not only, as Fast has it (1984), does gender identity incline us to look for what we are not in the opposite-sexed other.” Questions: I found the above quotes useful for trying to understand Dimen’s argument, but I’m still struggling to fully understand what she was arguing. What exactly does she mean by using gender as a transitional space? I get that gender is very much a manifestation of power and culture, but what were the psychoanalytic implications of this piece? What differentiates Dimen’s conception of gender from contemporary discourses on gender (relating to gender fluidity)? Are they differentiated?