Deconstructing women : reclaiming their identity and culture.

Abstract

In the post-colonial period, women are often said to suffer from “double-colonization”; by both the male gender and by the “previous” colonial power. Just like the colonized people, women are classified as being the “Other” or to be “lack” of [something]. In What is Woman, the author Heinamma explains how women are defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential, thus is the “Other” while he is the “Subject” (16). A man is both the positive and the neutral, and a woman, represents only the negative. Thus, being a woman means a deviation from their male counterpart, hence implying that they are of the weaker sex.