matilda feminism pp

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B Y C H A R L O T T E M C G A H E Y A N D E M M A H A R T

Feminist Ideals inMatilda


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Introduction to Feminism

Feminism exploded in the 1960s, with internationalliterary critics tackling for the first time issues ofgender, sexual politics and modern patriarchy

French feminist theory tends to focus on a feminineideal of an criture fminine and, especially inIrigarays case, a concept of gender separatism asopposed to female subordination


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Luce Irigaray

Prominent French philosopher in the 1970s

Her most important writings included Speculum ofthe Other Woman and This Sex Which Is Not One

Her ideas on feminism were based around theconcept that the feminine... Has to besubordinated to a masculine idealizing tendency thatuses the feminine as a mirror for its own narcissistic

speculations.


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...women should withdraw from patriarchy entirelyand constitute an alternative arena of their own

(795) R&R on The Sex Which Is Not One


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Allusions to female solidarity inMatilda

Matilda and Mrs Phelps shared love of literature, help and support

Matilda and LavenderMatilda liked her because she was gutsy and adventurous. She likedMatilda for exactly the same reasons. (146)

She longed to do something truly heroic. She admired the older girl Hortensia to distraction for the

daring deeds she had performed in the school. She also admired Matilda who had sworn her tosecrecy about the parrot job ... It was her turn now to become a heroine if only she could come upwith a brilliant plot. (196)

Matilda and Miss Honey Miss Honey began to lose patience. "Mr Wormwood, " she said,"if you think some rotten TV programme is more important than your daughter's future, then youought not to be a parent! Why don't you switch the darn thing off and listen to me!" That shook Mr

Wormwood. He was not used to being

spoken to in this way. (133)

Matilda and her mother: your daughters a cheat and a liar (65) was it your mother, Matilda, who taught you?/ You must have a great father then (92) Im afraid men are not always quite as clever as they think they are. You will learn that when you

get a bit older, my girl (80)


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this style or writing of women tends to put the torchto fetish words, proper terms, well-

constructed forms. This style does not privilegesight, instead it takes each figure back to its source,

which is among other things tactile... Its styleresists and explodesevery firmly established

form, figure, idea or concept.(--Luce Irigaray, The Power of Discourse and the Subordination of the

Feminine, in R&R)


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This is a book of humorous poetry, " she said. "See if you can readthat one aloud. (104) RD,Matilda

"Well Matilda, I would very much like to hear one of these limericksyou say you have written (106) RD,Matilda

"A poet called Dylan Thomas once wrote some lines that I think of

every time I walk up this path." Matilda waited, and Miss Honey, ina rather wonderful slow voice, began reciting the poem:"Never and never, my girl riding far and nearIn the land of the hearthstone tales, and spelledasleep, Fear or believe that the wolf in the sheepwhitehood

Loping and bleating roughly and blithely shallleap, my dear, my dear, Out of a lair in the flocked leaves in the dew

dipped year To eat your heart in the house in the rosywood. "(277) RD,Matilda

"Miss Honey gives us a little song about each word and we all sing ittogether and we learn to spell it in no time. Would you like to hearthe song about 'difficulty'?" (215) RD,Matilda


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feminine pleasure has to remaininarticulate..what is most strictly forbidden to

women today is that they should attempt toexpress their own pleasure.

(--Luce Irigaray, The Power of Discourse and the Subordination of theFeminine, in R&R)


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Then once again she smiled. It was a much broader one thistime, a smile of pure pleasure."Why, thank you,

Matilda, she said, still smiling. "Although it is not true,it is reallya very good limerick (109) RD,Matilda

She displayed almost no outward signs of her brilliance andshe never showed off. This is a very sensible and quiet little

girl, (144)


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to speak of or about woman may always boil downto... a recuperation of the feminine within a logic

that maintains it in repression, censorship,non-recognition

(--Luce Irigaray, The Power of Discourse and theSubordination of the Feminine, in R&R)


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The parents, instead of applauding her, called her a noisy chatterboxand told her sharply that small girls should be seen and notheard. (6) RD,Matilda

"Listen boy," he said, addressing the son and ignoring Matilda,

"seeing as you'll be going into this business with me one day... (23)

However, there are examples of resistance:

Never do anything by halves if you want to get awaywith it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sureeverything you do is so completely crazy it'sunbelievable... (169)


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women do not aspire to be mens equals inknowledge... they are rather attempting to wrest

this question awayfrom the economy of thelogos



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Matilda, who had been listening closely, said, "Butdaddy, that's even more dishonest than the sawdust.

It's disgusting. You're cheating people who trustyou."

"If you don't like it then don't eat the food in thishouse," the father said. "It's bought with the profits."

"It's dirty money," Matilda said. "I hate it. (29)


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the feminine itself finds itself defined as lack,deficiency, or as imitation and negative imageof the subject, they should signify it with respect tothis logic a disruptive excess is possible on the

feminine side



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one got the feeling that if she fell over she would smash into athousand pieces, like a porcelain figure. Miss Jennifer Honey was

a mild and quiet person who never raised her voice and wasseldom seen to smile. (82) RD,Matilda


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...something else altogether. She was a gigantic holy terror, a fiercetyrannical monster... an aura ofmenace. Miss Trunchbull never walked,she always marched like a storm-trooper with long strides and arms

aswinging- when she marched along a corridor you could actuallyhear hersnorting as she went... like a tank (83) RD,Matilda

the Trunchbull is the Prince of Darkness, the Foul Serpent, the FieryDragon (158 )RD,Matilda


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But.... Can genders be classified as binary opposites?

Where is she ? Activity/passivity Sun/Moon Culture/Nature Day/Night,

Father/Mother Head/heart Intelligible/sensitive Logos/Pathos Form, convex, step, advance, semen, progress Matter, concave, ground - where steps are taken, holding- and dumping-

ground Man Woman---(348) Hlne Cixous, The Newly Born Woman (La Jeune ne, 1975)


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Bisexuality: the location within oneself of thepresence of both sexes

it is woman who benefits from and opens up within

this bisexuality beside itself, which does notannihilate differences but cheers them on, pursuesthem , adds more: in a certain waywoman isbisexual- man having been trained to aim for

glorious phallic monosexuality.(352, R&R) HeleneCixous, The Newly Born Woman


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To Conclude...

What, then, is the image of a feminine ideal?


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One is not born, but, rather, becomesa woman

Simone de Beauvoir The Second Sex(1949)

matilda feminism pp

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