SOURCE: Flynn, Elizabeth A. “Toward Postmodern-Feminist Rhetoric and Composition.” In Feminism beyond Modernism, pp. 116-34. Carbondale and Edwardsville, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002.

In the following essay, Flynn focuses on various obstacles to the growth of a postmodern feminist viewpoint within the areas of composition and rhetoric.

[W]e should investigate ways of giving an identity to the sciences, to religions, and to political policies and of situating ourselves in relation to them as subjects in our own right.

—Luce Irigaray, Je, Tu, Nous: Toward a Culture of Difference

Clearly, differentiation between strong and weak, powerful and powerless, has been a central defining aspect of gender globally, carrying with it the assumption that men should have greater authority than women, and should rule over them. As significant and important as this fact is, it should not obscure the reality that women can and do participate in politics of...