Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory PDF
Preview Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory
V V X ^ "»K > THE POLITICS ^ OF -K REALITY: essays in V feminist . X ^ theory V MAFLILYN FRYE X ^ m DSW k BY MARILYN FRYE 1^^ THE CROSSING PRESS Freedom, California ^ ^ / The Crossing Press Feminist Series (L Copyright©1983 by Marilyn Frye Cover illustration and designby Diana Souza Bookdesign by Mary A. Scott Typesetting by Martha J. Waters Library ofCongress Catalogingin Publication Data Frye, Marilyn, 1941- The politics ofreality. (The Crossing Press feminist series) 1. Feminism-Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Title. II. Series. HQ1154.F78 1983 305.4'2 83-2082 ISBN 0-89594-100-7 ISBN 0-89594-099-X (pbk.) 7 CONTENTS Preface / vii Introduction / xi Essays MDppression / 1 Sexism / 1 The Problem That Has No Name 41 / In And Out Of Harm's Way: Arrogance And Love 52 / A Note On Anger 84 / Some Reflections On Separatism And Power 95 / ^ On Being White: Toward A Feminist Understanding Of Race And Race Supremacy 110 / Lesbian Feminism And The Gay Rights Movement: Another View Of Male Supremacy, Another Separatism 128 / To Be And Be Seen: The Politics of Reality ( 152 About The Author 175 / MM PREFACE The main themes of the first three essays in this collection had taken shape by early 1974, as I began to teach a philos- ophy course on feminism. They have been central ever since then to the course I have been teaching at Michigan State University called "Philosophical Aspects of Feminism." I want to dedicate this publication of "Oppression" to those students for whom the experience of "the oppression lecture," at the beginning of that course, was something of a Rite of Passage. I began making notes toward a paper on separatism prob- ably as early as 1970, but the connection between a politics of separation (versus assimilation) and the kind of boundary- drawing that is intrinsic to definition of words and concepts grew slowly in my thoughts. The intuition and construction of that connection was a significant part of the synthesis of politics and philosophy without which I would have had to abandon one or the other as meaningless. Since 1977 (during which year I wrote "Some Reflections on Separatism and Power") I have been exploring and clarifying for myself what woman is in the phallocratic semantic systems of language, myth and ritual and how that helps to explain and maintain the political subordination (assimilation) of women. As will be obvious to some readers, this work has been much in- formed by the work of other women, especially that of Ti- Grace Atkinson, Mary Daly and Andrea Dworkin. vu THE POLITICS OF REALITY viii As a writer, I began in the academic environment where one prepares an essay and then goes before an audience and reads it aloud. Outside academia people sometimes hear speeches and sometimes encounter someone reading a story or a poem aloud to an audience, but the oral delivery of essays is not familiar. These essays are written at least as much for the ear as for the eye, perhaps more so; I hope they will be read aloud, both in and out of academic settings. In most cases, the audience I imagined as I wrote was that provided by the Society for Women in Philosophy, usually the Midwestern Division. The women of that Society are a won- derful audience: attentive and excitable; critical; aestheti- cally sensitive, philosophically sophisticated and pohtically conscious; supportive, angry, stubborn, loving and logical. What more could a writer ask? . . . Publication, love and money, of course. At a time when it wasjust what I needed, Catherine Nicholson and Harriet Desmoines provided the perfect op- portunity for pubHcation with their well-named magazine, Sinister Wisdom, where they cheerfully published what was too feminist (not to mention too lesbian) for philosophy journals and too philosophical for lesbian feministjournals. Though I did not publish a great deal during their years of editorship, the existence of that magazine was vital to me, for it meant that whatever I was working on could be pub- lished. I am indebted to these women for their hearing me into speech. Love. A writer could want the intelligent and knowledge- able collaboration, encouragement and criticism of a devoted friend and passionate lover. I have had that. And I will make sure she gets as much as she has given. Money. I have made a decent living through these years at the sufferance of both women and men who have, in varying degrees at various times, yielded to the temptation to think me utterly mad, even dangerous, and have nonetheless not tried, at least not concertedly, to drive mc out; of which I am glad. Some people in the institution in which I work have
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