Social Taboos And Ethics Of Responsibility: A Feminist Study Of Girard’s Girl Mans Up

Abstract

Men and women are constructed in diverse social forms of ethical reasoning and moralities: women are related to the ethics of concern and the ethics of responsibility. Hence, women are essentially perceived as peaceful, healing, creative, and non-dominating, so they became more associational, emotional and sensual in their opinion, whereas males who are aggressive, violent, and dominating became authoritative.  In [1]the perception of possible self-reliance and self-independence, phallogocentric discursive and non-discursive practices publicize women as inferior entities concerning race, gender, class and nation. Ironically, this phallogocentric brouhaha helped feminists understand social taboos, especially in third-world countries where women do not have even freedom of thought. This study argues how women’s writings help women to challenge their manipulated and constructed identity by men as monsters or angels and reconstruct their lost selves to be ‘human’. The deconstructionist approach of this study delimits M-E Girard’s Girl Mans Up as a case study to uncover how and why the male-dominated society pays no attention to women’s historical achievements and, also, highlights how phallocentric discursive and non-discursive practices publicize women as a monster or an angel but not as ‘a woman/human’.