Writing as a Woman: Annie Abrahams' e-writing
Is there such a thing as womens' writing? Or, for that matter, womens' media? Elisabeth Joyce moves through the work of Annie Abrahams and writes against restrictive domestications of electronic media.
(Source: journal abstract)
We have heard for years about writing on the body and l'écriture feminine, about how the way a woman writes is different than the way a man writes. I have never understood how to take this. Is there a quantifiable difference between men's and women's writing?
Annie Abrahams composes pieces that focus women's issues or stereotypical female characteristics: nurturance, relationships, peace, communication, pain. I would like to suggest that we need to look at these women's issues from multiple perspectives, and that doing so, will actually let gender politics create an art experience that is richer than it might have been without feminism.
It isn't a bad thing to see the underside of the beast of femininity, and perhaps it is a sign that it's finally o.k. to be female, that women no longer have to make art like men, that making female-focused art no longer entails discrimination, and that in fact, it opens art to multiple perspectives, enhancing the available range of readings.
