Nothing Mat(t)ers: A Feminist Critique of Postmodernism

18 NOTHING MAT(T)ERS
misogyny becomes…a problem of self-loathing for the male” (Elaine Hansen in
Modleski: 1991, p. 11).
What are some of the practical implications of this theory of form and matter
Semiotics 23 is the applied version, a cousin of abstract poststructuralism. In
“Pandora’s Box in Aftertimes”, the internationally recognized American semiotician,
Thomas A. Sebeok, reports on his work (during Ronald Reagan’s term) for the
Bechtel Group, Inc. This group was engaged to form a Human Interference Task
Force and prepare a study for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Sebeok was
engaged to devise a semiotic system of communication to prevent human disruption
of buried nuclear wastes that would be understandable for up to 10,000 years.
Sebeok recommends that the area be cursed and a legend and ritual developed and reenacted
annually so that “superstition” may grow and “the uninitiated will be steered
away from the hazardous site for reasons other than the scientific knowledge of the
possibility of radiation and its implications;” (1986, p. 168). The secret of the
radioactively cursed area would be held by an elite few: “The actual “truth’ would be
entrusted exclusively to an—as it were—“atomic priesthood’, that is, a commission
of knowledgeable physicists, experts in radiation sickness, anthropologists, linguists,
psychologists, semioticians, and whatever additional administrative expertise may be
called for now and in the future” (1986, p. 168). The scientist of semiotic systems
and communication recommends, as his fail-safe code, a curse and a priesthood.
Semi-idiotics This is the future envisioned by priests of expert masculinity, logos
and rationality: word without end, deadly secrets, disguises, clandestine initiations.
“Membership in this elite ‘priesthood’ would be self-selective over time” (Sebeok:
1986, p. 168).
What sort of political action emerges from these ideas about the world Michel
Foucault wrote a series of articles in the Milan newspaper Corriere delta Sera
chronicling his trips to Iran and his ardent praise 24 for the Ayatollah Khomeini’s
original, mythical and supposedly anti-political discourse (1978, p. 1). The
Ayatollah, said Foucault, is a man who says nothing but no, who is non-political,
and there will never be a “Khomeini” government (1978, p. 1). An Iranian woman
responded: “It seems that for a Western Left sick of humanism, Islam is preferable…
but elsewhere! Many Iranians, like myself, are at a loss, desperate at the thought of
an ‘Islamic government’” (Eribon: 1989, p. 305). Foucault responded that Mme. H.
was unintelligent, hateful, and did not understand Islam (Eribon: 1989, p. 305).
White western men understand Islam better than Iranian women
Vincent Descombes (1989) analyzes Foucault’s defense of his support for
Khomeini which appeared in Le Monde as “Inutile de soulever” 25 Descombes
summarizes Foucault’s political strategy: “What importance can there be in this
23. Robert Young (1981, p. 3) describes semiology as “a science of signs, whereas structuralism is a
method of analysis.” Semiotics is how semiology has come to be known in America, following the
influence of C.S.Pierce.
24. See also the interview with Michel Foucault, “Iran: The Spirit of a World Without Spirit” in the
collection edited by Lawrence Kritzman (Foucault: 1988, pp. 211–224).
25. See especially pp. 41–43 of Descombes (1989).