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Read, Kenneth. “The Nama Cult of the Central High- Strathem, Marilyn. Women in Between . New York: lands, New Guinea.” Oceania 23, no. 1(1952): 1–25. Seminar, 1972. Reay, Marie. The Kuma . London: Cambridge Univer- Thompson, E. P. The Making of the English Working sity Press, 1959. Class . New York: Vintage, 1963. Rowntree, M. and J. “More on the Political Economy Thurnwald, Richard. “Banaro Society.” Memoirs of Women’s Liberation.” Monthly Review 21, of the American Anthropological Association 3, no. 8(1970): 26–32. no. 4(1916): 251–391. Sahlins, Marshall. “The Origin of Society.” Scientifi c Van Baal, J. Dema . The Hague: Nijhoff, 1966. American 203, no. 3(1960a): 76–86. Vogel, Lise. “The Earthly Family.” Radical America 7, ———“Political Power and the Economy in Primitive nos. 4 and 5(1973): 9–50. Society.” In Essays in the Science of Culture , edited Wilden, Anthony. The Language of the Self . Baltimore: by Robert Dole and Robert Caneiro. New York: Johns Hopkins Press, 1968. Crowell, 1960b. Williams, F. E. Papuans of the Trans-Fly . Oxford: ——— Stone Age Economics . Chicago: Aldine- Clarendon, 1936. Atherton, 1972. Wittig, Monique. Les Guérillères . New York: Avon, Schneider, David, and Kathleen Gough, eds. Matrilineal 1973. Kinship . Berkley: University of California Press, Wolf, Charlotte. Love between Women . London: 1961. Duckworth, 1971. Scott, John Finley. “The Role of Collegiate Sororities in Yalmon, Nur. “On the Purity of Women in the Castes Maintaining Class and Ethnic Endogamy.” American of Ceylon and Malabar.” Journal of the Royal Sociological Review 30, no. 4(1965): 415–26. A nthropological Institute 93, no. 1(1963): 25–58. Secombe, Wally. “Housework Under Capitalism.” New Left Review 83(1973): 3–24. Sonenschein, David. “Homosexuality as a Subject of Anthropological Investigation.” Anthropological Quarterly 2(1966): 73–82.

cited as evidence that oppressors are oppressed OPPRESSION by their oppressing, the word ‘oppression’ is be- ing stretched to meaninglessness; it is treated Marilyn Frye as though its scope includes any and all human experience of limitation or suffering, no matter It is a fundamental claim of feminism that women the cause, degree or consequence. Once such us- are oppressed. The word ‘oppression’ is a strong age has been put over on us, then if ever we deny word. It repels and attracts. It is dangerous and that any person or group is oppressed, we seem dangerously fashionable and endangered. It is to imply that we think they never suffer and have much misused, and sometimes not innocently. no feelings. We are accused of insensitivity; even The statement that women are oppressed is of bigotry. For women, such accusation is par- frequently met with the claim that men are op- ticularly intimidating, since sensitivity is one of pressed too. We hear that oppressing is oppres- the few virtues that has been assigned to us. If sive to those who oppress as well as to those they we are found insensitive, we may fear we have oppress. Some men cite as evidence of their op- no redeeming traits at all and perhaps are not real pression their much advertised inability to cry. women. Thus are we silenced before we begin: It is tough, we are told, to be masculine. When the name of our situation drained of meaning and the stresses and frustrations of being a man are our guilt mechanisms tripped.

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But this is nonsense. Human beings can be or dangerous has been known to result in rape, ar- miserable without being oppressed, and it is per- rest, beating and murder. One can only choose to fectly consistent to deny that a person or group risk one’s preferred form and rate of annihilation. is oppressed without denying that they have feel- Another example: It is common in the United ings or that they suffer. States that women, especially younger women, We need to think clearly about oppression, are in a bind where neither sexual activity nor and there is much that mitigates against this. I sexual inactivity is all right. If she is heterosexu- do not want to undertake to prove that women ally active, a woman is open to censure and pun- are oppressed (or that men are not), but I want to ishment for being loose, unprincipled or a whore. make clear what is being said when we say it. We The “punishment” comes in the form of criticism, need this word, this concept, and we need it to be snide and embarrassing remarks, being treated as sharp and sure. an easy lay by men, scorn from her more restrained female friends. She may have to lie and hide her behavior from her parents. She must juggle the I risks of unwanted pregnancy and dangerous con- The root of the word ‘oppression’ is the element traceptives. On the other hand, if she refrains from ‘press’. The press of the crowd; pressed into mili- heterosexual activity, she is fairly constantly har- tary service; to press a pair of pants; printing assed by men who try to persuade her into it and press; press the button. Presses are used to mold pressure her to “relax” and “let her hair down”; things or fl atten them or reduce them in bulk, she is threatened with labels like “frigid,” “up- sometimes to reduce them by squeezing out the tight,” “man-hater,” “bitch” and “cocktease.” The gasses or liquids in them. Something pressed is same parents who would be disapproving of her something caught between or among forces and sexual activity may be worried by her inactivity barriers which are so related to each other that because it suggests she is not or will not be popu- jointly they restrain, restrict or prevent the thing’s lar, or is not sexually normal. She may be charged motion or mobility. Mold. Immobilize. Reduce. with lesbianism. If a woman is raped, then if she The mundane experience of the oppressed has been heterosexually active she is subject to the provides another clue. One of the most charac- presumption that she liked it (since her activity is teristic and ubiquitous features of the world as presumed to show that she likes sex), and if she experienced by oppressed people is the double has not been heterosexually active, she is subject bind—situations in which options are reduced to to the presumption that she liked it (since she is a very few and all of them expose one to penalty, supposedly “repressed and frustrated”). Both het- censure or deprivation. For example, it is often erosexual activity and heterosexual nonactivity are a requirement upon oppressed people that we likely to be taken as proof that you wanted to be smile and be cheerful. If we comply, we signal raped, and hence, of course, weren’t really raped at our docility and our acquiescence in our situation. all. You can’t win. You are caught in a bind, caught We need not, then, be taken note of. We acqui- between systematically related pressures. esce in being made invisible, in our occupying Women are caught like this, too, by networks no space. We participate in our own erasure. On of forces and barriers that expose one to penalty, the other hand, anything but the sunniest counte- loss or contempt whether one works outside the nance exposes us to being perceived as mean, bit- home or not, is on welfare or not, bears children ter, angry or dangerous. This means, at the least, or not, raises children or not, marries or not, stays that we may be found “diffi cult” or unpleasant to married or not, is heterosexual, lesbian, both or work with, which is enough to cost one one’s live- neither. Economic necessity; confi nement to racial lihood; at worst, being seen as mean, bitter, angry and/or sexual job ghettos; sexual harassment; sex

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discrimination; pressures of competing expec- when you step back, stop looking at the wires one tations and judgments about women, wives and by one, microscopically, and take a macroscopic mothers (in the society at large, in racial and ethnic view of the whole cage, that you can see why the subcultures and in one’s own mind); dependence bird does not go anywhere; and then you will see (full or partial) on husbands, parents or the state; it in a moment. It will require no great subtlety commitment to political ideas; loyalties to racial of mental powers. It is perfectly obvious that the or ethnic or other “minority” groups; the demands bird is surrounded by a network of systematically of self-respect and responsibilities to others. Each related barriers, no one of which would be the of these factors exists in complex tension with least hindrance to its fl ight, but which, by their every other, penalizing or prohibiting all of the relations to each other, are as confi ning as the apparently available options. And nipping at one’s solid walls of a dungeon. heels, always, is the endless pack of little things. If It is now possible to grasp one of the reasons one dresses one way, one is subject to the assump- why oppression can be hard to see and recognize: tion that one is advertising one’s sexual availabil- one can study the elements of an oppressive struc- ity; if one dresses another way, one appears to “not ture with great care and some good will without care about oneself ” or to be “unfeminine.” If one seeing the structure as a whole, and hence with- uses “strong language,” one invites categorization out seeing or being able to understand that one is as a whore or slut; if one does not, one invites cat- looking at a cage and that there are people there egorization as a “lady”—one too delicately con- who are caged, whose motion and mobility are stituted to cope with robust speech or the realities restricted, whose lives are shaped and reduced. to which it presumably refers. The arresting of vision at a microscopic level The experience of oppressed people is that yields such common confusion as that about the the living of one’s life is confi ned and shaped by male door-opening ritual. This ritual, which is forces and barriers which are not accidental or remarkably widespread across classes and races, occasional and hence avoidable, but are system- puzzles many people, some of whom do and atically related to each other in such a way as to some of whom do not fi nd it offensive. Look at catch one between and among them and restrict the scene of the two people approaching a door. or penalize motion in any direction. It is the ex- The male steps slightly ahead and opens the door. perience of being caged in: all avenues, in every The male holds the door open while the female direction, are blocked or booby trapped. glides through. Then the male goes through. The Cages. Consider a birdcage. If you look very door closes after them. “Now how,” one inno- closely at just one wire in the cage, you cannot cently asks, “can those crazy womenslibbers say see the other wires. If your conception of what is that is oppressive? The guy removed a barrier to before you is determined by this myopic focus, the lady’s smooth and unruffl ed progress.” But you could look at that one wire, up and down the each repetition of this ritual has a place in a pat- length of it, and be unable to see why a bird would tern, in fact in several patterns. One has to shift not just fl y around the wire any time it wanted to the level of one’s perception in order to see the go somewhere. Furthermore, even if, one day at whole picture. a time, you myopically inspected each wire, you The door-opening pretends to be a helpful still could not see why a bird would have trou- service, but the helpfulness is false. This can ble going past the wires to get anywhere. There be seen by noting that it will be done whether is no physical property of any one wire, nothing or not it makes any practical sense. Infi rm men that the closest scrutiny could discover, that will and men burdened with packages will open doors reveal how a bird could be inhibited or harmed for able-bodied women who are free of physical by it except in the most accidental way. It is only burdens. Men will impose themselves awkwardly

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and jostle everyone in order to get to the door in order not to see macroscopically. At any rate, fi rst. The act is not determined by convenience or whether it is deliberate or not, people can and do grace. Furthermore, these very numerous acts of fail to see the oppression of women because they unneeded or even noisome “help” occur in coun- fail to see macroscopically and hence fail to see terpoint to a pattern of men not being helpful the various elements of the situation as systemati- in many practical ways in which women might cally related in larger schemes. welcome help. What women experience is a world As the cageness of the birdcage is a macro- in which gallant princes charming commonly scopic phenomenon, the oppressiveness of the make a fuss about being helpful and providing situations in which women live our various and small services when help and services are of little different lives is a macroscopic phenomenon. or no use, but in which there are rarely ingenious Neither can be seen from a microscopic perspec- and adroit princes at hand when substantial assist- tive. But when you look macroscopically you can ance is really wanted either in mundane affairs or see it—a network of forces and barriers which in situations of threat, assault or terror. There is are systematically related and which conspire to no help with the (his) laundry; no help typing a the immobilization, reduction and molding of report at 4:00 a.m. ; no help in mediating disputes women and the lives we live. among relatives or children. There is nothing but advice that women should stay indoors after dark, be chaperoned by a man, or when it comes down II to it, “lie back and enjoy it.” The gallant gestures have no practical mean- The image of the cage helps convey one aspect ing. Their meaning is symbolic. The door- opening of the systematic nature of oppression. Another and similar services provided are services which is the selection of occupants of the cages, and really are needed by people who are for one rea- analysis of this aspect also helps account for the son or another incapacitated—unwell, burdened invisibility of the oppression of women. with parcels, etc. So the message is that women It is as a woman (or as a Chicana/o or as a are incapable. The detachment of the acts from Black or Asian or lesbian) that one is entrapped. the concrete realities of what women need and do “Why can’t I go to the park; you let Jimmy go!” not need is a vehicle for the message that women’s “Because it’s not safe for girls.” actual needs and interests are unimportant or irrelevant. Finally, these gestures imitate the be- “I want to be a secretary, not a seamstress; I havior of servants toward masters and thus mock don’t want to learn to make dresses.” women, who are in most respects the servants and “There’s no work for negroes in that line; learn a caretakers of men. The message of the false help- skill where you can earn your living.” 1 fulness of male gallantry is female dependence, the invisibility or insignifi cance of women, and When you question why you are being blocked, contempt for women. why this barrier is in your path, the answer has not One cannot see the meanings of these rituals if to do with individual talent or merit, handicap or one’s focus is riveted upon the individual event in failure; it has to do with your membership in some all its particularity, including the particularity of the category understood as a “natural” or “physical” individual man’s present conscious intentions and category. The “inhabitant” of the “cage” is not motives and the individual woman’s conscious per- an individual but a group, all those of a certain ception of the event in the moment. It seems some- category. If an individual is oppressed, it is in times that people take a deliberately myopic view virtue of being a member of a group or category and fi ll their eyes with things seen microscopically of people that is systematically reduced, molded,

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immobilized. Thus, to recognize a person as op- To get past this, it helps to notice that in fact pressed, one has to see that individual as belong- women of all races and classes are together in a ing to a group of a certain sort. ghetto of sorts. There is a women’s place, a sector, There are many things which can encourage which is inhabited by women of all classes and or inhibit perception of someone’s membership races, and it is not defi ned by geographical bound- in the sort of group or category in question here. aries but by function. The function is the service In particular, it seems reasonable to suppose that of men and men’s interests as men defi ne them, if one of the devices of restriction and defi nition which includes the bearing and rearing of children. of the group is that of physical confi nement or The details of the service and the working condi- segregation, the confi nement and separation would tions vary by race and class, for men of different encourage recognition of the group as a group. races and classes have different interests, perceive This in turn would encourage the macroscopic their interests differently, and express their needs focus which enables one to recognize oppression and demands in different rhetorics, dialects and and encourages the individuals’ identifi cation and languages. But there are also some constants. solidarity with other individuals of the group or Whether in lower, middle or upper-class home category. But physical confi nement and segrega- or work situations, women’s service work always tion of the group as a group is not common to includes personal service (the work of maids, but- all oppressive structures, and when an oppressed lers, cooks, personal secretaries), * sexual service group is geographically and demographically dis- (including provision for his genital sexual needs persed the perception of it as a group is inhibited. and bearing his children, but also including “be- There may be little or nothing in the situations ing nice,” “being attractive for him,” etc.), and of the individuals encouraging the macroscopic ego service (encouragement, support, praise, at- focus which would reveal the unity of the struc- tention). Women’s service work also is charac- ture bearing down on all members of that group. * terized everywhere by the fatal combination of A great many people, female and male and responsibility and powerlessness: we are held re- of every race and class, simply do not believe sponsible and we hold ourselves responsible for that woman is a category of oppressed people, good outcomes for men and children in almost and I think that this is in part because they have every respect though we have in almost no case been fooled by the dispersal and assimilation of power adequate to that project. The details of the women throughout and into the systems of class sub jective experience of this servitude are local. and race which organize men. Our simply being They vary with economic class and race and eth- dispersed makes it diffi cult for women to have nic tradition as well as the personalities of the knowledge of each other and hence diffi cult to men in question. So also are the details of the recognize the shape of our common cage. The forces which coerce our tolerance of this servi- dispersal and assimilation of women through- tude particular to the different situations in which out economic classes and races also divides us different women live and work. against each other practically and economically All this is not to say that women do not have, and thus attaches interest to the inability to see: assert and manage sometimes to satisfy our own for some, jealousy of their benefi ts, and for some, interests, nor to deny that in some cases and in resentment of the others’ advantages. some respects women’s independent interests do

* Coerced assimilation is in fact one of the policies avail- * At higher class levels women may not do all these kinds of able to an oppressing group in its effort to reduce and/or work, but are generally still responsible for hiring and su- annihilate another group. This tactic is used by the U.S. pervising those who do it. These services are still, in these government, for instance, on the American Indians. cases, women’s responsibility.

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overlap with men’s. But at every race/class level If a rich white playboy who lives off income and even across race/class lines men do not serve from his investments in South African diamond women as women serve men. “Women’s sphere” mines should break a leg in a skiing accident at may be understood as the “service sector,” tak- Aspen and wait in pain in a blizzard for hours ing the latter expression much more widely before he is rescued, we may assume that in that and deeply than is usual in discussions of the period he suffers. But the suffering comes to economy. an end; his leg is repaired by the best surgeon money can buy and he is soon recuperating in a lavish suite, sipping Chivas Regal. Nothing in III this picture suggests a structure of barriers and It seems to be the human condition that in one forces. He is a member of several oppressor degree or another we all suffer frustration and groups and does not suddenly become oppressed limitation, all encounter unwelcome barriers, because he is injured and in pain. Even if the ac- and all are damaged and hurt in various ways. cident was caused by someone’s malicious neg- Since we are a social species, almost all of our ligence, and hence someone can be blamed for it behavior and activities are structured by more and morally faulted, that person still has not been than individual inclination and the conditions of an agent of oppression. the planet and its atmosphere. No human is free Consider also the restriction of having to of social structures, nor (perhaps) would happi- drive one’s vehicle on a certain side of the road. ness consist in such freedom. Structure consists There is no doubt that this restriction is almost of boundaries, limits and barriers; in a structured unbearably frustrating at times, when one’s lane whole, some motions and changes are possible, is not moving and the other lane is clear. There and others are not. If one is looking for an excuse are surely times, even, when abiding by this reg- to dilute the word ‘oppression’, one can use the ulation would have harmful consequences. But fact of social structure as an excuse and say that the restriction is obviously wholesome for most everyone is oppressed. But if one would rather of us most of the time. The restraint is imposed get clear about what oppression is and is not, for our benefi t, and does benefi t us; its operation one needs to sort out the sufferings, harms and tends to encourage our continued m o t i o n , n o t limitations and fi gure out which are elements of to immobilize us. The limits imposed by traffi c oppression and which are not. regulations are limits most of us would cheer- From what I have already said here, it is clear fully impose on ourselves given that we knew that if one wants to determine whether a particular others would follow them too. They are part of suffering, harm or limitation is part of someone’s a structure which shapes our behavior, not to our being oppressed, one has to look at it in context reduction and immobilization, but rather to the in order to tell whether it is an element in an op- protection of our continued ability to move and pressive structure: one has to see if it is part of an act as we will. enclosing structure of forces and barriers which Another example: The boundaries of a racial tends to the immobilization and reduction of a ghetto in an American city serve to some extent group or category of people. One has to look at to keep white people from going in, as well as to how the barrier or force fi ts with others and to keep ghetto dwellers from going out. A particular whose benefi t or detriment it works. As soon as white citizen may be frustrated or feel deprived one looks at examples, it becomes obvious that because s/he cannot stroll around there and enjoy not everything which frustrates or limits a person the “exotic” aura of a “foreign” culture, or shop is oppressive, and not every harm or damage is for bargains in the ghetto swap shops. In fact, due to or contributes to oppression. the existence of the ghetto, of racial segregation,

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does deprive the white person of knowledge and free of stress, alienation and hard work), and feel- harm her/his character by nurturing unwarranted ing deprived since it seems closed to them, they feelings of superiority. But this does not make thereupon announce the discovery that they are the white person in this situation a member of oppressed, too, by “sex roles.” But that barrier is an oppressed race or a person oppressed because erected and maintained by men, for the benefi t of of her/his race. One must look at the barrier. It men. It consists of cultural and economic forces limits the activities and the access of those on and pressures in a culture and economy control- both sides of it (though to different degrees). led by men in which, at every economic level and But it is a product of the intention, planning in all racial and ethnic subcultures, economy, tra- and action of whites for the benefi t of whites, to dition—and even ideologies of liberation—work secure and maintain privileges that are available to keep at least local culture and economy in to whites generally, as members of the dominant male control. * and pr ivileged group. Though the existence The boundary that sets apart women’s sphere of the barrier has some bad consequences for is maintained and promoted by men generally whites, the barrier does not exist in systematic for the benefi t of men generally, and men gener- relationship with other barriers and forces form- ally do benefi t from its existence, even the man ing a structure oppressive to whites; quite the who bumps into it and complains of the incon- contrary. It is part of a structure which oppresses venience. That barrier is protecting his classifi - the ghetto dwellers and thereby (and by white in- cation and status as a male, as superior, as having tention) protects and furthers white interests as a right to sexual access to a female or females. It dominant white culture understands them. This protects a kind of citizenship which is superior barrier is not oppressive to whites, even though it to that of females of his class and race, his ac- is a barrier to whites. cess to a wider range of better paying and higher Barriers have different meanings to those on status work, and his right to prefer unemploy- opposite sides of them, even though they are bar- ment to the degradation of doing lower status or riers to both. The physical walls of a prison no “women’s” work. more dissolve to let an outsider in than to let an If a person’s life or activity is affected by some insider out, but for the insider they are confi n- force or barrier that person encounters, one may ing and limiting while to the outsider they may not conclude that the person is oppressed simply mean protection from what s/he takes to be because the person encounters that barrier or force; threats posed by insiders—freedom from harm nor simply because the encounter is unpleasant, or anxiety. A set of social and economic barriers frustrating or painful to that person at that time; and forces separating two groups may be felt, nor simply because the existence of the barrier or even painfully, by members of both groups and force, or the processes which maintain or apply yet may mean confi nement to one and liberty and it, serve to deprive that person of something of enlargement of opportunity to the other. value. One must look at the barrier or force and The service sector of the wives/mommas/ answer certain questions about it. Who constructs assistants/girls is almost exclusively a woman- and maintains it? Whose interests are served by only sector; its boundaries not only enclose its existence? Is it part of a structure which tends women but to a very great extent keep men out. Some men sometimes encounter this barrier and * Of course this is complicated by race and class. Machismo experience it as a restriction on their movements, and “Black manhood” politics seem to help keep Latin or their activities, their control or their choices of Black men in control of more cash than Latin or Black women control; but these politics seem to me also to “lifestyle.” Thinking they might like the simple ultimately help keep the larger economy in white male nurturant life (which they may imagine to be quite control.

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to confi ne, reduce and immobilize some group? strenuous in the company of men. Like men’s Is the individual a member of the confi ned group? emotional restraint, women’s physical restraint Various forces, barriers and limitations a person is required by men. But unlike the case of men’s may encounter or live with may be part of an op- emotional restraint, women’s physical restraint is pressive structure or not, and if they are, that per- not rewarded. What do we get for it? Respect and son may be on either the oppressed or the oppres- esteem and acceptance? No. They mock us and sor side of it. One cannot tell which by how loudly parody our mincing steps. We look silly, incom- or how little the person complains. petent, weak and generally contemptible. Our ex- ercise of this discipline tends to low esteem and low self-esteem. It does not benefi t us. It fi ts in IV a network of behaviors through which we con- Many of the restrictions and limitations we stantly announce to others our membership in a live with are more or less internalized and self- lower caste and our unwillingness and/or inabil- monitored, and are part of our adaptations to the ity to defend our bodily or moral integrity. It is requirements and expectations imposed by the degrading and part of a pattern of degradation. needs and tastes and tyrannies of others. I have Acceptable behavior for both groups, men and in mind such things as women’s cramped pos- women, involves a required restraint that seems tures and attenuated strides and men’s restraint in itself silly and perhaps damaging. But the of emotional self-expression (except for anger). social effect is drastically different. The wom- Who gets what out of the practice of those disci- an’s restraint is part of a structure oppressive to plines, and who imposes what penalties for im- women; the man’s restraint is part of a structure proper relaxations of them? What are the rewards oppressive to women. of this self-discipline? Can men cry? Yes, in the company of women. V If a man cannot cry, it is in the company of men that he cannot cry. It is men, not women, who One is marked for application of oppressive pres- require this restraint; and men not only require sures by one’s membership in some group or cat- it, they reward it. The man who maintains a egory. Much of one’s suffering and frustration steely or tough or laid-back demeanor (all are befalls one partly or largely because one is a forms which suggest invulnerability) marks member of that category. In the case at hand, it is himself as a member of the male community the category, woman. Being a woman is a major and is esteemed by other men. Consequently, factor in my not having a better job than I do; be- the maintenance of that demeanor contributes ing a woman selects me as a likely victim of sex- to the man’s self-esteem. It is felt as good, and ual assault or harassment; it is my being a woman he can feel good about himself. The way this that reduces the power of my anger to a proof of r e s t r i c t i o n fi ts into the structures of men’s lives is my insanity. If a woman has little or no economic as one of the socially required behaviors which, or political power, or achieves little of what she if carried off, contribute to their acceptance and wants to achieve, a major causal factor in this is respect by signifi cant others and to their own that she is a woman. For any woman of any race self-esteem. It is to their benefi t to practice this or economic class, being a woman is signifi cantly discipline. attached to whatever disadvantages and depriva- Consider, by comparison, the discipline of tions she suffers, be they great or small. women’s cramped physical postures and attenu- None of this is the case with respect to a per- ated stride. This discipline can be relaxed in the son’s being a man. Simply being a man is not what company of women; it generally is at its most stands between him and a better job; whatever

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assaults and harassments he is subject to, being members of those races and/or classes. But men male is not what selects him for victimization; are not oppressed as men. being male is not a factor which would make his . . . and isn’t it strange that any of us should anger impotent—quite the opposite. If a man has have been confused and mystifi ed about such little or no material or political power, or achieves a simple thing? little of what he wants to achieve, his being male is no part of the explanation. Being male is some- thing he has going for him, even if race or class NOTE or age or disability is going against him. 1. This example is derived from Daddy Was a Women are oppressed, as women. Members of Number Runner, by Louise Meriwether (Prentice- certain racial and/or economic groups and classes, Hall. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. 1970). p. 144. both the males and the females, are oppressed as

women have nothing to say about existentialism, THE MASTER’S TOOLS WILL the erotic, women’s culture and silence, devel- NEVER DISMANTLE THE oping feminist theory, or heterosexuality and power. And what does it mean in personal and MASTER’S HOUSE * political terms when even the two Black women who did present here were literally found at the Audre Lorde last hour? What does it mean when the tools of a racist patriarchy are used to examine the fruits I AGREED TO TAKE PART in a New York University of that same patriarchy? It means that only the Institute for the Humanities conference a year most narrow perimeters of change are possible ago, with the understanding that I would be com- and allowable. menting upon papers dealing with the role of The absence of any consideration of lesbian difference within the lives of american women: consciousness or the consciousness of Third difference of race, sexuality, class, and age. The World women leaves a serious gap within this absence of these considerations weakens any fem- conference and within the papers presented inist discussion of the personal and the political. here. For example, in a paper on material rela- It is a particular academic arrogance to assume tionships between women, I was conscious of any discussion of feminist theory without exam- an either/or model of nurturing which totally ining our many differences, and without a sig- dismissed my knowledge as a Black lesbian. In nifi cant input from poor women, Black and Third this paper there was no examination of mutuality World women, and lesbians. And yet, I stand here between women, no systems of shared support, as a Black lesbian feminist, having been invited to no interdependence as exists between lesbians comment within the only panel at this conference and women-identifi ed women. Yet it is only in where the input of Black feminists and lesbians the patriarchal model of nurturance that women is represented. What this says about the vision of “who attempt to emancipate themselves pay this conference is sad, in a country where racism, perhaps too high a price for the results,” as this sexism, and homophobia are inseparable. To read p a p e r s t a t e s . this program is to assume that lesbian and Black For women, the need and desire to nurture each other is not pathological but redemptive, and it * Comments at “The Personal and the Political Panel,” Second Sex Conference, New York, September 29, 1979. is within that knowledge that our real power is

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