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    one is not born a woman 1981

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    20 views13 pages

    One Is Not Born A Woman 1981

    Uploaded by

    Georgia Bloom

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 13
    although the number i growing. Although women are very vie ‘Ble as sexual beings, at socal Beings they are toraly invisible, and as such must appear as litle as posible, and always with some kind of excuse if they do 40, One only has to read ite. views with oustanding women to hear them spologiing, And the neispapers sill today report that “two students and a woman," “two lawyers and a woman," “thee travelers and a woman” were seen doing this or that, For the category of sex is ‘the category that ticks to women, for ony they cannot be con ‘ved of outside oft. Only they are Se, these, and sex they have been made in thet minds, bodies, acs, gestures; even their murders and beatings are sexual. Indeed, the category of sex tightly holds women For the category of sex is totalitarian one, which to prove trur has its ingustons its cours ite rbunal, its body of laws, its ero, ts tortures, ts mutations, its executions, its police {i shapes the mind as well asthe body since i contol all mental production. Ie grips our minds in such a way that we cannot think outside of i. This is why we must destroy it and start thinking beyond tif we wane to sar thinking at al, as we must estoy the sexes 28a sociological reality if we want to star exist. The category of sexs the category that ordain slavery for ‘women, and it works specifically, as it di for black slaves, ‘hough an operation of reduction, by taking the part for the whole a par (color, sx) through which the whole uman group hast pas as through screen. Notice hatin cv matters color 25 well as ex still mut be “declared.” However, because ofthe sholition of slavery, the “declaration” of “clot” i now consid cred dscininator. But that docs not hold true forthe “dec ration” of "se" which no even women dream of abolishing say: i is abou ta doo? —— | The Straight md ancl 2W Monids he Saga es other Says (Reacon Press, AZ) . ONE IS NOT BORN A WOMAN 1981 A mates feminist! approach to women’s oppression destroys the idea that women area “natural group": “a racial group of 4 special kind, » group perceived as natural, 2 group of men ‘considered ss materially specific in ther bodies What the ana ysis accomplishes on the level of ideas, practice makes acral at the level of fats: by its very exsenc, lesbian society destroys ‘he arial (socal taer eon a a a “atael ‘roup.”ATebian scien? pragmatically evel that che division from men of which women have been the objec isa politcal cone and shows that we have been ideologically eebuie into a “natural group.” Inthe ease of women, ideology goes far since ‘our bodies aswell as our minds ate the product ofthis manip- ‘lation, We have been compelled in our bodies and in our minds te coer. ens DT i de ai Restate wa theides of matire shat as Been etablsed for us, Distr to such an extent that out deformed body is what hey cal “natural,” what is supposed to ‘vista such before oppresion. Distorted to such an extent hat inthe end oppression seems to be a consequence ofthis “nacre” ‘within ourselves (a nature which i only an idea). What a ma teriast analysis does by reasoning, a lesbian society accom: ales pracy: nt ony is there no atu goup “women” ] rls npc of i ba a individ wel we | Goeton “woman whisk for for Sone de Beavoi it Gris amyth She eid “Ones os brn bar becomes wom. No biological, peycblogs, or eonomie fate deemine he fre hat the human female presets n sce its ation ts 1 whole tha prodaes this creme ieee Beween tale and eunuch, which serie a eine However most ofthe insta lebian feminist Are ica and ever il eve shat the basi of women’ Omer Siw hoc ar wel aro Some ofthe even ci ton hirsuresn Simone de Besar? The btn mother Fhe and ina "pehistory” when women rested ization be hus of ili presposton) while th oar and bat tne buted bense of a loi pedsposion i same tal wih he bison interpretation of story rode up tonow by the das ofmen litle une meio of dig in women and men a tslogial explanation ofthe division, fbi of scl fac Fr me he cos never conse et Bian approach o women’ open since sums tha he Bass of oi o the being of sce ein eteormsaiy. Mavic io less hereovexoal than pariarhy tiny he tex be oprer Ta changes Furthermore, nor nl his “Sapa il inpsoned in the categories of wx wom ad ty, br holds onto the en ta he expacy tose bith hates) is wha dees a woman. Although pra facts nd tvysof ving conta this hor in labia society here are Iehians who afi that women and mn re diferent species race he wos ae wed itersangesys men ar bolos- iat inferie to women; male wilenc bso nest ‘iy 8 ding ths by amiing the shee naral™ * division between women and men, we natraliz history, we as fame that "wnen” and *women” ave aways exited and will Sheaye exis Not oni do we nara story, bu abso con- ‘equcay we narline the social phenomena which expres oot Sepmssion, making change imposible. For example instead of warn evn birth as a fered production, we sez itas a “nt TRIE Nola! procs fogering sat in our sce bibs tec lanned (demography, orgeting that we ourselves ate pro- rammed to produce clen, while this is the only social a ‘Foy ctbone of wae" that preset sich a ea danger of death. ‘Thuy at tong av we wl “anal abandon by wil ri puke iflong and cenuierol commitment to chilean he female rete ac ing conta of the production of ‘dre will mean much more haath mere control ofthe m= teal menos ofthis peodoction: women wil have co absract themslves rom the definition "worn Wich is imposed pon en ‘A materials feminist approach shows that what we rake for the ‘use oF origin of oppression isin fact only the mark” imposed by the oppressor: the “myth of woman; plus ts marae {ects and manifestations in the appropriated consciousness and ‘ods of women, Thus, this mark doesnot predete oppesion: Colete Guillaumin has shown that before the socioeconomic reality of black slavery, the concep of ace didnot exist, a Teast ‘noi its movdeen meaning, since it was applied to the lineage of families, However, now, race, exactly like sexy i taken as an “immediate given” a “sensible give,” “physical fares,” be longing to a natural order. But what we belive to be a physical nd direct perception is only 4 sophisticated and mythic con- suction, an “imaginary frmation which interprets phys ial etre in shee sna any ote bat marked by the social stem) through the network of reltionte in {hich they are pecived (They are seen bck, thereon they are black; they ate seen at semen, therefore, they are wore [acts ng ea wa hy fi ad mae vray Lesbians should always remember and acknowledge how unnatural” compeling,totlly oppenive, and. destrcre bing “woman” was fo usin theo days bore the women Hiervion movement. twas 4 politial constant and those who rested i were acesed of ot being “real™ women, Bot then we were proud of ince inthe accusation thee os realy something like a shadow of victory: the avowal by the oppresar that “worn isnot something tht gos withow sy ing since tobe one one has tobe a “eal” one We wer at he Same ime aecsed of wanting tobe men. Today hs doubie we ‘custom has been taken up agin with enthusiasm inthe content ofthe women’ eration movement by some feminiss and lo, alas, by some lesbians whore political gal sems somehow fo be becoming more and more “feminine.” Tp ree to be oman, homever me so become nan, Besides if we take at an example the perfect utc,” he dase ‘example which provokes the moet hoeos, whom Prout would ave called woran/nan, how ther alenason dierent tom that of someone who want to become a woman? Tweedledum, and Tweededee. Atleast for woman, waning become 2 ‘man proves that she has escaped het Talal programming. Bat «ven if she would lik, whl her seg, she ene be. come a man, For becoming a man would demand fom» woman nor only a man’ external appearance but his consonant well, thai, the contiouenest of ane who disposes by right of at east two “narurl” slaves during hit ie span, This i impos- sible, and one feature of lesbian oppression consists preisely of ‘making women out of reach for us, since women belong to men. ‘Thus a lesbian has to be something els, a not-woman, a not a product of sie, not a produce of naar, for there is so nature in woke isthe refs ofthe economic, ideological, and political power of a man. This, we lesbian, and nonlesians ae well, knew be- fore the beginning ofthe lesbian and feminist movement. How ver a Andres Dworkin emphases, many lesbians recently ‘have increasingly tried ro transform the very ideology that has

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