Beyond Essentialism and Constructivism: Commentary on Paper by Cynthia Dyess and Tim Dean

Abstract

The author comments on Dean and Dyess's “Gender: The Impossibility of Meaning.” They provide a valuable critique, based on Lacan's work, of postmodern gender theories. However, Dean and Dyess's argument for the “impossibility of meaning” in regard to gender may erect a new false dichotomy (gender as endless possibility versus gender as total impossibility) in place of the problematic dichotomy (gender essentialism versus gender constructivism) they so usefully deconstruct.