Female Affiliation/Irigaray/Audre Lorde 2
In this way perhaps we can begin to establish quite different connections,
spaces, and possibilities in the integrated circuit - ones in which we can
argue, disagree, respect each other, learn from each other, make it possible for
us to live and breathe, be happy, and make work together that is based on
non-exploitative productive relations with full recognition of the spaces
between us.
Faith: Irigaray develops the notion of female affiliation as the basis for women to
begin to learn how to be whole, how to be singular and yet to create a space of
productive alliance between themselves. She addresses the central philosophical
question: How will I live? (In Tolstoy’s story, “What men live by,” he affirms
that it is by love alone that we live). The problems of how to create female
affiliation in cyberspace, in the virtual realm and within the integrated global
circuit are complex. We need to create new forms of welcoming and hosting, of
recognition, of acknowledgment, of respect for each person's voice and
experience, while remaining sharply aware of the naturalized aspects of social
relations in cyberspace and technology that often militate against such
affiliative practices. Irigaray suggests we make no assumptions of knowing the
other, or of what they desire or need. Instead, she suggests that we use
recognizing and relational forms of address such as:
