What is a Woman? by Toril Moi

What is a Woman? Reviews

• 
  Melissa Jeanette

  This is the second class in which I've read Moi's book. In this class, we started with
  Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory by Chris Weedon before going into Moi's critique of feminist poststructuralism. I recommend reading the two together since Moi is a lot harder to digest if you don't already have a firm understanding of feminist poststructuralist theory.
  
  Overall, I really appreciated Moi's argument. Her theory has a lot of practical, everyday value, which makes it easier (than poststructuralist theory) to apply to everyday life. I particularly like her discussion of Simone de Beauvoir's idea that a woman will make something of what the world makes of her. I also enjoyed de Beauvoir's idea that a woman's body is like the relief on a sculpture - it's a part of a woman's experience and how the world sees her, but it's not always the most prominent or foregrounded aspect of her existence. It's something that is focused on either more or less, depending on the situation.
  
  The part of the book I will most remember, and probably refer back to, is her discussion of the then recent trend of including autobiographical/personal details in academic writing. It was quite thought provoking. In short, she concludes that the personal can be really useful in some situations, but it can also be self-indulgent and just as silencing as claims to universal/empirical knowledge sometimes are. I think that portion alone is a worthwhile read for anyone going on to do academic writing.
  
  I can't say that I really disliked anything about the book, but as fair warning, I should note that more than a few of my classmates had a rather intense dislike for Moi. They disliked her sometimes snarky, matter-of-fact judgments, especially concerning Judith Butler's early work regarding sex and gender. I didn't mind so much because Moi often acknowledges the great work Butler and others have done, before batting away at their critical theory. Not to mention the fact that she continually invites rebuttal. Also, I'm quite snarky (at least in my head), so I enjoyed her style even when I disagreed with her argument. Of course, I might not feel the same way if I were the theorist in the hot seat.
  
  As a side note, Moi is a huge fan of Simone de Beauvoir and this book is not only a critique of feminist poststructuralist theory, but is also an attempt to show that de Beauvoir's pioneering theoretical work in The Second Sex does all the work poststructuralist theory aims to achieve, while still remaining practically applicable and it does so without treating the body as merely an object on which gender is scripted.
• 
  Peter Herold

  “What is a woman“ is a very good and easy-to-read reuse of Beauvoir‘s and Merleau-Ponty’s existentialist understanding that you experience life as a “lived body“ / as “a situation“, whose biology affects what you could do but does not determine what you do, with a history and in a social setting, to argue the sex/gender distinction is useless in trying to answer the question of what is a woman or a man. You certainly can’t infer social norms from biology (here the sex/gender distinction IS useful). Moi‘s answer to the question of what is a woman is that it depends on the situation, and that there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Regarding trans people, Moi argues (writing in 1999 and before same-sex marriage was legal) being a woman for the purposes of getting married is not the same as being a woman for the purpose of participating in a lesbian activist group. But she also recognises the issue of trans people as difficult and in need of more input, above all from trans people themselves, and says this shouldn’t stop us understanding “easy cases“.
• 
  Synne Sørgjerd

  An easy read that anyone interested in feminism should take a look at! I feel like a better feminist now that I've read it.