Can a new symbolic order finally allow women to exist as autonomous subjects?

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Luce Irigaray, a foundational figure in French difference feminism, argues that Western philosophy and psychoanalysis have long functioned through a phallocentric lens. By critiquing how language and political economy treat women as commodities, she seeks to establish a new symbolic order that recognizes genuine sexual difference rather than gender neutrality.

Born in 1930, the Belgian-born philosopher Luce Irigaray has spent decades investigating the nature of gender, identity, and language. Her intellectual journey began with empirical research into the speech patterns of dementia patients, which revealed gendered language differences denoting dominance in men and subjectivity in women. This focus on sexual difference became the hallmark of her career, leading her to challenge the phallocentric foundations of thinkers like Freud, Hegel, Plato, and Lacan. In her seminal 1974 work, Speculum of the Other Woman, she analyzed these canonical texts to expose how they have historically excluded women from the status of autonomous subjects.

Irigaray’s critique extends to political economy, where she draws on Marxist theory to argue that society operates on the exchange of women between men. She posits that women are treated as commodities—utilitarian objects that possess both use value and exchange value—within a system that prioritizes the accumulation of surplus desire. This framework, detailed in her 1977 book This Sex Which Is Not One, suggests that the phallic economy leaves no space for feminine autonomy. To counter this, she advocates for a new symbolic order that values the distinct identities of both sexes, moving beyond the binary thinking that has historically relegated women to the margins of intellectual discourse.

Her work has faced significant controversy. In the 1970s and 1980s, critics often accused her of essentialism, though scholars in the 1990s began to reframe her approach as a form of political essentialism. Furthermore, her use of scientific terminology in later works drew harsh criticism from figures like Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, who labeled her interpretations of physics as absurd. Despite these challenges, Irigaray remains a prolific thinker. In her later years, she has turned her attention toward global democratic community, exploring how relationships between men and women can be centered on bonds other than reproduction, ultimately arguing that Western culture remains unethical due to its persistent gender discrimination.

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