In whose words? On gender identities, knowledge and writing practices

In recent years, feminist theorists have begun to explore how sexual difference and patriarchal conceptions of gender permeate the epistemological structures as well as the substantive content of dominant forms of knowledge. This project discloses the fraudulence of universal truth claims and argues for situated knowledges. But developing situated knowledges is not straightforward: the deep-seated and pervasive character of gender biases poses difficult problems for those seeking to further feminist aims within the academy. Focusing on gender biases in language, this article advocates a strategy of unsettling existing intellectual structures from within and seeks to make this kind of strategy accessible to geographers whose primary interests are not theoretical or linguistic. Non-sexist language and gynocentric language are criticized for underestimating the significance of gender asymmetry in language and for oversimplifying the relationship between language and corporeality. Feminist readings of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory are explored to advance a more promising account of the interconnections between writing/speaking positions and gender identities. This allows for the development of a strategy of subverting phallic authority through marking the previously unmarked position of masculinity.