Historically, thediscourse of absence is carried on bythe Woman : Woman is sedentary,Man hunts, journeys; Woman is faithful (she waits ), man is fickle(he sails away, he cruises) . It is Woman who gives shape to absence, elaborates its fiction, for she has time to do so;  she weaves and she sings; the Spinning Songs express both immobility (by thehum of theWheel ) and absence (far away, rhythms oftravel, sea surges,cavalcades ).  It follows that in any man who utters the other's absence something feminineis declared:  thisman who waits and who suffers fromhis waiting is miraculously feminized.  A man is not feminized because he is inverted butbecause he is in love.