ABSTRACT
I want to begin with a bold conjecture: perhaps Irigaray’s work on sexual
difference might find unexpected confirmation from Darwin’s account of sexual
selection. Ironically, it may turn out that Irigaray finds the greatest philosophical
confirmation of her claims regarding sexual difference from Darwin’s under-
standing of the power and force of sexual selection. And, with equal irony,
Darwin’s work may be interpreted not only as a systematic account of the forces
that compose and transform natural existence but also as the first theoretical
framework that makes the amorphous forces of sexual attraction and sexual
differentiation productive of the richness and complexity of life. If Irigaray sees
sexual difference as the motor of cultural life, Darwin sees it as the motor of
natural existence. Can Irigaray’s concept find resonance in biological theory?
