The Crisis in Gendered Representation: A Discussion of Jill Gentile’s “On Having No Thoughts: Freedom and Feminine Space”

Abstract

A discussion of Jill Gentile’s exploration first of the complexity in free association and in the expansion of possibility in including silence as an aspect of speaking. The discussion then proceeds to examine the limits and contradictions in Gentile’s exploration into the often unsettling and complex relationship between speech, symbolization, and gender. The discussion focuses on the contradictions in Gentile’s attempts to free speech from gender stereotyping while deploying terms like feminine law, vagina, and empty space.