Controversially however, Joyce appeared to be interested in feminism consistent with his opinions of sexuality: that there was a strong sexual difference between the sexes, resulting that men were superior to women. However women were allowed to be sexually liberated which is highlighted in Ellman's biography where Joyce stated 'I hate intellectual women'. This is evident in 'Nausicaa' when Gerty MacDowell 'revealed all her graceful beautiful shaped legs like that,'(329.Joyce.1932) Joyce plays upon the idea that women are irrational and unable to participate in intellectual disciplines, that they are merely an animal who buckles under their sexual desires. Similarly Swift encourages us to question whether he uses misogyny or female inferiority in his poem 'A Beautiful Nymph Going to Bed'. He seems to have a fascination with the prostitute as she dismantles herself going to bed. His writing is filled with disgust as he investigates her innards. 'For Swift, the great harm of "those who are commonly called learned women" comes from rejection of gender boundaries[.] virtues and vices have no gender, Swift goes on to say, which has sometimes been taken for a radical piece of enlightened gender thinking[.]Swift takes for granted that the scale will be different in men and women because one sex is superior in endowment and suited to the larger arena of the public world' (Barnett.132.2007) His contradictory title of 'A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed' persuades us to question his satire and whether his disgust is because she is a woman earning her way through prostitution or indeed perhaps that she is a woman earning a living at all. Both James Joyce and Jonathan Swift represent women in a very radical manner however both agree that women are an inferior species which is portrayed in their works.
Disability is sexualised in both texts. In James Joyce's Ulysses 'Nausicaa', Gerty is a second rate disabled character who lacks social awareness.