294 - “Mitchell’s summary of my ideas on gender is quite syntonic with my own view, and I believe that here we are largely in agreement.” 295 - “From the beginning, I have argued that the basic positions of gender polarity, femininity and masculinity as we know them, are constituted through a process of splitting.” 296 - “Here I come to Butler’s essay, which poses quite different challenges and criticisms than does Mitchell’s. Indeed, it seems to read me in a way quite opposite from his. Where Mitchell objects to my refusal to radically reject instinct, I get the impression that Butler perceives me as unwilling to see the essential, ineluctable (if not literally instinctual) aspect of aggression.” 300 - “Thus I believe there is between Butler and me an agreement, obscured perhaps by language, context, and disciplines. But there are some vital theoretical differences between us that are not the result of misconstrual. I will try to tease these apart in my discussion of those important questions she raises regarding the problems of thinking in terms of the dyad, of gender dimorphism, and overinclusiveness.” 306 - “As Aron and I (Aron and Benjamin, 1999) have articulated the oedipal development of thirdness, this higher level of recognition is necessarily based on the earlier development of the nascent third in the preoedipal dyad.”
- “As this analysis suggests, my main purpose in understanding thirdness is to expand on the normative ideal of recognition, which Butler correctly identifies as central to my work. However, I believe that this idea of the third also has value in thinking about gender. Reaching the dyadic place of thirdness, in which symbolic relations are possible, is a prerequisite for transcending rigid gender binaries in triadic relations. Moving from the defensive use of repudiation to tolerance of overinclusiveness allows the postoedipal use of symbols to bridge multiple and contradictory identifications (Bassin, 1998) in configurations of desire.”
Questions: What are the social implications of Benjamin’s argument? What does Benjamin mean by thirdness?