In this mythical-textual
mechanics, then, the hero must be male, regardless of the gender of the
text-image, because the obstacle, whatever its personification, is morphologically
female and indeed, simply, the womb.
The implication here is [that] the primary distinction
on which all depends is not, say, life and death, but rather sexual difference.
Teresa de Lauretis 1984,
p.118-19, quoted in Killick, p.84-85