Becoming-Woman and Time: When is the Subject of Feminism?

• Published in: Hypatia Vol. 39; no. 4; pp. 827 - 841
• Main Author: Bowen, Charlie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Cambridge University Press 2024
• Subjects: Females; Feminism; Feminist theory; Gender; Political representation; Postfeminism; Subjectivity; Women
• ISSN: 0887-5367; 1527-2001
• DOI: 10.1017/hyp.2023.118

This paper considers the use of Deleuze and Guattari's concept of “becoming-woman” for feminist theory. Since its first use, the concept has polarized feminist theory. For some, it presents the route out of masculinist logics that third-wave feminism has sought; for others, it denies the female experience and returns “woman” to universalizing, implicitly masculine presuppositions. The paper argues that both are partly right, and that the disagreement stems from an underdeveloped consideration of how “being” and “becoming” coexist in time. Following Rosi Braidotti, the paper claims that “woman” must be understood not in essentialist terms, but as the “virtual feminine” who is the contested subject of sexual difference. Seen this way, woman's being is inseparable from her becoming. The paper therefore argues that we must understand the mutually constitutive relation of being and becoming that produces “woman” in this sense. Drawing on Deleuze's discussion of Aion and Chronos, the paper sees the subject of feminism as temporally dislocated, with both a being and a becoming, rooted in a present that she is always moving beyond. But it claims that this is central for reconciling the conflicting understandings of becoming-woman, and so for preserving the concept as a feminist tool.