Women, For Centuries Not Having Access To

The Essence Of Oppression Is That One Is Defined From The Outside By Those Who Define Themselves As Superior By Criteria Of Their Own Choice.

The Annihilation Of A Woman's Personality, Individuality, Will, Character, Is Prerequisite To Male Sexuality.

The Nature Of Women's Oppression Is Unique: Women Are Oppressed As Women, Regardless Of Class Or Race; Some Women Have Access To Significant Wealth, But That Wealth Does Not Signify Power; Women Are To Be Found Everywhere, But Own Or Control No Appreciable Territory; Women Live With Those Who Oppress Them, Sleep With Them, Have Their Children - We Are Tangled, Hopelessly It Seems, In The Gut Of The Machinery And Way Of Life Which Is Ruinous To Us.

For A Mother The Project Of Raising A Boy Is The Most Fulfilling Project She Can Hope For. She Can Watch Him, As A Child, Play The Games She Was Not Allowed To Play; She Can Invest In Him Her Ideas, Aspirations, Ambitions, And Values - Or Whatever She Has Left Of Them; She Can Watch Her Son, Who Came From Her Flesh And Whose Life Was Sustained By Her Work And Devotion, Embody Her In The World. So While The Project Of Raising A Boy Is Fraught With Ambivalence And Leads Inevitably To Bitterness, It Is The Only Project That Allows A Woman To Be - To Be Through Her Son, To Live Through Her Son.

Romantic Love, In Pornography As In Life, Is The Mythic Celebration Of Female Negation. For A Woman, Love Is Defined As Her Willingness To Submit To Her Own Annihilation.... The Proof Of Love Is That She Is Willing To Be Destroyed By The One Whom She Loves, For His Sake. For The Woman, Love Is Always Self-sacrifice, The Sacrifice Of Identity, Will, And Bodily Integrity, In Order To Fulfill And Redeem The Masculinity Of Her Lover.