"They say, men in their way have adored you like a goddess or else burned you at their stakes or else relegated you to their service in their back-yards. They say, so doing they have always in their speech dragged you in the dirt. They say, in speaking they have possessed violated taken subdued humiliated you to their hearts' content. They say, oddly enough what they have exalted in their words as an essential difference is a biological variation. They say, they have described you as they described the races they called inferior. They say, yes, there are the same domineering oppressors, the same masters who have said that negroes and women do not have a heart spleen liver in the same place as their own, that difference of sex difference of colour signify inferiority, their own right to domination and appropriation. They say, yes, these are the same domineering oppressors who have written of negroes and women that they are universally cheats hypocrites tricksters liars shallow greedy faint-hearted, that their thinking is intuitive and illogical, that nature is what speaks most loudly in them. They say, yes,these are the same domineering oppressors who sleep crouched over heir money-bags to protect their wealth and who tremble with fear when night comes." "They have attached a particular word to an object or a fact and thereby consider themselves to have appropriated it. The women say, so doing the men have bawled shouted with all their might to reduce you to silence. They say, the language you speak is made up of words that are killing you.""Better for you to see your guts in the sun and utter the death-rattle than to live a life that anyone can appropriate. What belongs to you on this earth? Only death.""The women say, shame on you. They say, you are domesticated, forcibly fed, like geese in the yard of the farmer who fattens them. They say, you strut about, you have no other care than to enjoy the good things your masters hand out, solicitous for your well-being so long as they stand to gain. They say, there is no more distressing spectacle than that of slaves who take pleasure in their servile state. They say, you are far from possessing the pride of those wild birds who refuse to hatch their eggs when they have been imprisoned. They say, take an example from the wild birds who, even if they mate with the males to relieve their boredom, refuse to reproduce so long as they are not at liberty."
This book really deserves a review more in-depth than "lyrically written disjointed barbarian woman vignettes," but that's all I got right now. It handles militant feminism in a palatable and beautifully written way that I don't find at all isolating or discomforting. It avoids the "men are pigs" cliche, even when the Amazonian barbarian babes are spearing them down,flaying them open, and tanning their hides. A lot of gorgeous pastoral,post-apocalyptic imagery punctuated by pages featuring either large letter "O"s (which,in the book, are vulval symbols) or columns of female names both elaborate and mundane (Clytemnestra, Anne,etc etc). I love creative formatting used within prose narratives, so these interludes were exciting.I am curious whether or not Les Guerilleres influenced the Louis Malle film Black Moon in any way; they share in common a brutal war between the sexes and both emphasize the female side. They also share a surrealistic narrative set in a pastoral,sheltered,dystopian environment. Something to think about.Anyway, I strongly recommend it. It balances femininity and brutality excellently, never favoring one over the other.
What do You think about Les Guérillères (1985)?
Cryptic, but intriguing, this is probably the best-known work of the late Monique Wittig. The title does not refer to "female warriors” in the literal sense, but more in terms of women’s struggles in society throughout history. The novel is actually more of an anti-erotic work as Wittig’s goal is to downplay all the sexual stereotypes on the female body and advocate that society stop reacting to women simply in terms of their anatomy. She says women should fit in to the universality of human experience. About every third page in the novel, Wittig has a random list of women’s names from all periods of history and all different kinds of ethnic groups to indicate how all women belong in the dynamic of the human family. The fact that Wittig was a Lesbian writer is less important than her passionate defense of womankind in all areas of life. This rather bizarre novel may not be for everyone, but it is definitely creative and vital to modern feminist literature.
—Helynne
After at last overcoming the trauma of menstrual painting, I'm trying to rectify years of neglect of lesbian feminism by giving this one a shot. The prose is taut and the vignettes attempt to deal with the community or the crowd without burdening the reader with a psychological narrative centered around the development of one individual. The whole thing is rife with political implications that I'm only beginning to discover, but this is so much better than reading ethnographic descriptions of ritual that seek to nostalgically claim a lost, primal communal experience. Maybe it is my vulva envy, or longing for a feminist ethics that escapes biological determinism, but It would be nice if adolescent boys read this instead of Burroughs. What are glenuri?
—Bryan
