the oppression of female language

For many psychoanalysts, this history of the oppression of female language and the aggrandizement of male language begins with the phallus but has crucial development in the puberty stage.  As with most psychoanalysis, the phallus plays a large part in the formation of language for it “embodies patriarchal law of the culture [and] its basic meanings refer to the recurring process by which sexual difference and subjectivity are acquired.”  Among other things, the lack of penis for a little girl creates a negative access to “language as the embodiment of cultural law” and disrupts her development with language whereas a little boy’s penis allows him full access to language.  After accepting her lack of penis, the female enters into the Oedipal stage where the restriction on her speech and the social sex difference is realized. 

 

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Kaplan, 58

Kaplan, 58.