Women, it is said, possess corresponding power. Through consciousness-raising, women found that women’s so-called power was the other side of female powerlessness. A women’s supposed power to deny sex is the underside of her actual lack of power to stop it. Women’s supposed power to get men to do things for them by nagging or manipulating is the other side of the power they lack to have their every need anticipated, to carry out the task themselves, or to invoke physical fear to gain compliance with their desires without even having to mention it. Once the veil is lifted, once relations between the sexes are seen as power relations, it becomes impossible to see as simply unintented, well-intentioned, or innocent the actions through which women are told every day what is expected and when they have crossed some line.

Women, it is said, possess corresponding power. Through consciousness-raising, women found that women’s so-called power was the other side of female powerlessness. A women’s supposed power to deny sex is the underside of her actual lack of power to stop it. Women’s supposed power to get men to do things for them by nagging or manipulating is the other side of the power they lack to have their every need anticipated, to carry out the task themselves, or to invoke physical fear to gain compliance with their desires without even having to mention it. Once the veil is lifted, once relations between the sexes are seen as power relations, it becomes impossible to see as simply unintented, well-intentioned, or innocent the actions through which women are told every day what is expected and when they have crossed some line.

– Catharine A. MacKinnon –

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