In her essay, Kanneh takes a critical view of some of the foundation stones upon which Helen Cixous builds her arguments in her seminal work "The Laugh of the Medusa". It is by developing an understanding of her critique of Cixous that best allows the reader to formulate a coherent opinion of where Kanneh stands in relation to other feminist critics and the field of feminist criticism as a whole.

In this, my exploration of Kanneh's essay, I aim to discuss how she relates to Cixous' arguments before, in conclusion, I present what I understand to be the political ground on which she stands.

Taking a radical feminist approach, that being one that recognises patriarchal control over political, social and economic systems (N.B. I take my definition from Joy Magezis' "Women's Studies" Hodder & Stoughton. 1996. p.15), Kanneh, shares common ground with Cixous in so much as she b

Kanneh's position is one that rebukes the eurocentic theories of other feminists. Whilst it would be true to acknowledge her standing as a radical feminist, in light of the arguments offered by Kanneh it would be far more appropriate to recognise her as a black feminist.

Pecola is constantly challenged by a self image which runs counter to the images of accepted normality. Kanneh highlights that as a child, Pecola enters into the discourse of social norms through the children's books. The child sees that via her books, Fathers are white, big and strong, mothers are white and happy and the houses in which they live are green and white.

Giving the example of Pauline Reag's 1954 "The Story of O", a novel of female servitude and degradation that features genital mutilation, she illustrates the sexually sadistic extremity to which the misuse of the female body goes to in cultural outpourings. However, Kanneh argues that, although functional, using the body as a metaphorical focus for insurrectionary activity is fraught with dangers which are not constructive to the feminist cause.

Taking the term in context, we see that term is used to signify a general ability to have influence on the decision making across the whole social spectrum, from home to government. And thus she supports the assertion of Deborah Cameron (Kemp & Squires p293) whom she quotes as saying; "To advocate a direct relationship to the body is not therefore subversive because it is equivalent to denying the reality and the strength of social mediations, the very ones that oppress us in our bodies". Her final and major argument springs from these assumptions about the nature of women, and brings in the issue of race and culture.

When this discourse is projected against the child's reality, she argues that the end result of such a comparison between self and accepted norms can only be alienation and a lowering of self worth. This alienation comes about as the reality of the child's experience is viewed by the child to be in stark contrast to the discourse found in her reading. Kanneh argues that in the post colonial it is this type of contrast that makes up black women's realities

Applying her own reading of Cixous' theoretical situation she insists that to praise this aspect of femininity, the apparent weakness depicted as virtue, is tantamount to praising the hardships inflicted by masters. A point she emphasises by criticising not only Cixous, for following the "wages for housework" line but also French novelist and dramatist Marguerite Duras for wanting to "anchor the rhetoric of woman in the body".

elieves that the female body has been subjected to oppression and propaganda from male dominated institutions and social practices. Like Cixous she believes in instigating a positive reaction that "revalues" the female body.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3259
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)