Abstract

The question “what does a woman want?” has been asked by psychoanalysts in the past—particularly by Freud and Lacan—and is a question that has been taken up by feminist scholarship and epistemology. This essay addresses this complex question via both feminist research and enquiry and a Lacanian psychoanalytic praxis. The issue of women’s very speech is crucial, which is a cornerstone element of the feminisms of Spender, Steinem, Hanisch, Irigaray, Cixous, Felski, Jane and Ford. Lacan makes the point that feminine jouissance stands outside the phallic order and thus must be incorporated in the psychoanalytic consideration of what is the sexed position, woman. This essay argues that Lacan’s psychoanalytic considerations have great political and practical import for contemporary feminist practices and epistemology, via the positioning of women’s very speech outside of—but apposite to—a provably violent misogynistic patriarchy.