Freud.

After looking at Cixous' essay, her references to Freud intrigued me as I have studied psychoanalysis in a few classes here at Messiah. Freud developed his theory of sexuality and psychology using such proposals as women having "penis envy" and men having a fear of castration. When Cixous encourages women to write and to write what they don't know in order to form their identity she calls them to rebuke this "penis envy". Unfortunately, I didn't realize the extent of the mind and self esteem barrier that women faced...to be told from the beginning of psychological discoveries and schools of though that you as a woman subconsciously wanted to become a man to the extent that she felt incomplete without make genitalia creates a void and chasm between the sexes that creeps deeper and deeper with every pen stroke and publication. Men simply fear the removal of their "manhood", thus viewing the envy as a threat. The threat turns into the enemy and the two are never seen in harmony.
Another similar theory that prevents the female from "branching out" and forging her own path in the world is because she sees that she has the same anatomy as her mother and clings to this familiarity, while the man sees that he is different and leaves the home. This crude and incomplete picture of this theory nonetheless represents another problem for women writers...they are encouraged to not go because it is not proper. Their mothers and matriarchs in the family were good Christian women, who labored in love and married into an unequal partnership. Women writers should be able to chose their mediums and techniques. It is their right as human beings, who are glorious in their own sexuality to explode their way into the world and surrounding culture.
I am sympathetic towards Cixous' overtly sexual writing because in order to "explode" onto the scene women must make it known that they are in fact able to make the effort and have the ability to remain in this sphere of literary criticism and writing. She is not intimidated by "the big dick" and she is not the "woman of yesterday".