Monique Wittig

One Is Not Born a Woman

where wittig fails here is blatant racism (specifically antiblackness) and that, although it doesn’t diminish her other points, makes this a little uncomfortable to read, and hard to review.

wittig is right to say that there is a distinction between women as a class and woman as the myth in the cisheteronormative and patriarchal society. she is right to point out how lesbianism is the only way for women to ‘not be women’ – in the context which most society views women – “Lesbian is the only concept I know of which is beyond the categories of sex (woman and man), because the designated subject (lesbian) is not a woman, either economically, or politically, or ideologically.” 

her critique of marxism was interesting too; and i really enjoyed how she acknowledged the importance of being an ‘individual subject’ while still having class consciousness. and her acknowledgment of marxism (leninism too) failing to recognise women’s only oppression was refreshing to see, even though my views on class struggle in general often align with marx, engels and lenin: “For women, Marxism had two results. It prevented them from being aware that they are a class and therefore from constituting themselves as a class for a very long time, by leaving the relation "women/men" outside of the social order, by turning it into a natural relation (…)” 

where wittig fails here is blatant racism (specifically antiblackness) and that, although it doesn’t diminish her other points, makes this a little uncomfortable to read, and hard to review.

wittig is right to say that there is a distinction between women as a class and woman as the myth in the cisheteronormative and patriarchal society. she is right to point out how lesbianism is the only way for women to ‘not be women’ – in the context which most society views women – “Lesbian is the only concept I know of which is beyond the categories of sex (woman and man), because the designated subject (lesbian) is not a woman, either economically, or politically, or ideologically.” 

her critique of marxism was interesting too; and i really enjoyed how she acknowledged the importance of being an ‘individual subject’ while still having class consciousness. and her acknowledgment of marxism (leninism too) failing to recognise women’s only oppression was refreshing to see, even though my views on class struggle in general often align with marx, engels and lenin: “For women, Marxism had two results. It prevented them from being aware that they are a class and therefore from constituting themselves as a class for a very long time, by leaving the relation "women/men" outside of the social order, by turning it into a natural relation (…)” 

an interesting read, nonetheless.