Definitions HQ

Sexual difference (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not a given of experience; without signifiers no one could find a place on the male or female side.

Sexual difference (n.) stays ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠unfathomable: activity/passivity is only a metaphor laid over it; the masculine/feminine opposition itself is never reached.

Sexual difference (n.) has ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠no representative in the psyche: there is nothing there by which the subject can situate himself as male or female.

Sexual difference (n.) precedes ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the positions 'masculine' and 'feminine': it is the Real of a deadlock that both try to symbolize, each entangled in its own inconsistencies.

Sexual difference (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not the deep meaning beneath light/dark, fire/water, reason/emotion, as in old cosmologies, but what skews the discursive universe and keeps every symbolization of sex unstable — the obstacle to symbolization itself.

Sexual difference (n.) divides ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠two children on a train — "We're at Ladies!" says the brother; "Idiot! we're at Gentlemen," says the sister; each sees from its own seat, and two countries are born that are really the same.