Need For a Female Narrative? A Question for Contemporary Women Writers

Yesterday, I posted an observation on contrasting narrative elements found in the works of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. I also made a brief reference to the social environment from which it evolved. Today, I would like to pull these two elements together and discuss the relevance to contemporary women writers.

In yesterday’s post [Evidence of a Female Narrative?], I illustrated how Woolf manifested her believe in the ‘feminine’ voice through her own narrative technique. Of course, I also implied that Woolf’s experience within Victorian Society most likely influenced the development of this uniquely feminine voice. This draws our attention to the gender development  debate of nature vs. nurture.

For contemporary women writers, it is the ‘nature vs. nurture’ argument that has become the greatest obstacle to the female narrative. For Woolf, the lack of female voices within literature, and in publishing in general, made her argument far more self-evident. Contemporary women writers, on the other hand, not only have a representative voice in literature, but a developing literary tradition of their own. So why should we still be concerned with the ‘female’ narrative? Because, it is a unique perspective that has a lot to offer our collective community . . . if we can move beyound the ‘nature vs. nurture’ debate.

Although Woolf advocated the development of the female voice, some insist that there is no such thing. Opponents argue that gender is merely a social construct. This is the basis of the nurture argument. That is, if an individual matured in a gender neutral environment, they would exhibit gender neutral behavior. Therefore, Woolf’s feminine narrative is not inherently ‘feminine’ but merely the result of her environment.

The opposite argument is that of nature. After all, women give birth and men do not. Obviously there are biological differences between the male and female members of our species. Some argue that these biological differences influence our social behavior. But again, without a gender neutral environment, it’s impossible to estimate to what extent.

To complicate the issue, there are also theories that suggest environment may actually manipulate biological hard wiring. If this is a possibility, then biology may be supporting gender specific behaviors that have been environmentally imposed upon our biology.

Are you beginning to see why the ‘nature vs. nurture’ argument has become such an obstacle to the ‘female’ voice? It’s a distracting circle of theoretical arguments. Some feminists insist that women are inherently unique due to our biology, (nature), while others insist that, despite physiological differences, women are no different from men (nurture). Meanwhile any discussion of the ‘female’ narrative gets caught in the quagmire of “what is feminine?” So let’s remove the gender issue.

I mentioned this concept in one of my earliest posts [Replacing the Terms "Masculine" and "Feminine"] . Rather than discussing masculine and feminine, let’s discuss rational and intuitive. In the past, these concepts were often tied together. To be masculine was to be rational, while feminine behavior was viewed as naturally intuitive. Whether or not there is significant tie to gender we can acknowledge that there are intuitive and rational ways of experiencing the world.  We can also acknowledge that rational ways of being are viewed as more concrete—more legitimate, while intuitive ways of being are often viewed as frivolous.

At the time that Woolf called for the development of a female narrative, the gender identity of women was still closely aligned with this intuitive way of being. In essence, it is the intuitive narrative the Woolf advocates, and that is still a viable objective. It is also an objective that can be pursued by either gender. However, it’s women who favor intuitive ways of being who have the hardest time being heard, because this intuitive nature still carries the stigma of weak mindedness.

Women are still underrepresented in many fields. Those who are the most successful are the ones who have adapted well to rational ways of being. So our current challenge, as contemporary women writers, will be discovering ways to honor intuitive values and narrative while navigating an industry dominated by those who value rational ways of being.