Divine Daughters of Divine Mothers: Luce Irigaray's Search for Women's Own Divinity

Abstract

Patriarchal culture, Luce Irigaray reminds us, is an exclusivist culture among men. Its intolerance of difference isolates women and strips them of their subjectivity. Women are thus reduced to their biological capacity to satisfy men's erotic, social and procreative needs.¹ The consequence of this culture for the female child is also important. Unwelcome daughters are excluded from paternal society as fathers seek the sameness of the sons who carry on their names. The concept of women's own divinity is necessary if women are to constitute a sense of purposefulness of existence and identity.