By endowing Medusa with a voice, Cixous allows Medusa to speak against the lies and falsehoods introduced by men in an attempt to scare women from exploring their own power. Cixous explains that men have "rivited us between two horrifying myths: between the Medusa and the abyss." The myth of the abyss was created when men made women believe that the questions surrounding the male-created myths were "too dark to be explorable...and we believed." By believing and therefore failing to question the validity of the myths, women allowed the male-created fear to continue. If women would simply look farther into the myths they would discover there is nothing to fear, that there is no validity to what they have been previously told. Cixous explains this point when she says that men "haven't changed a thing: they've theorized their desire for reality." Men have done nothing aside from create a faulty impression, an impression women have believed without question for so long. If women would question these myths, if they would "look at the Medusa straight on," they would find out "she's not deadly. She's beautiful and she's laughing."