Binary Opposition

After reading Elizabeth A. Flynn's "Composing as a Woman," it evoked an awareness that men and women compose differently. Honestly, I have never given it much thought.


There are parts of the essay that I agree with in terms of the examples that Flynn illustrates,
(where the first group of friends who have the experience in riding in a hot air balloon). She deducts that "Women who are connected knowers are able to detach themselves from the relationships and institutions to which they have they have been subordinated and begin to trust their own intuitions" (428). I believe that this describes the method that I use in order to compose. Also, when I write, I feel that in some respect there is a detachment (in my ability to participate in the act of writing itself), but also structures in which all students must write. I have never attributed binary opposition as a way in which to explain difference and affinity in composition. Yes, I believe that women are wired very differently than men, so I suppose why their writing shoud not be also?


I appreciate this essay by Flynn, because it opens up the possibility for further discourse. Personally I believethat I exhibit personalities of both the male and female writers. I can feel connected, and allow my individual freedom to dictate my prose, but I can also become isolated and competitive, and I want my writing to be the best and anything less than perfection is failure. It brings up an interesting question. If patriarchy is presented in composition, and if so, how do men and women arrive on equal foooting?