The Utopian Male Concept Which Is The

Every Woman Who Has Had Experience With Sexual Violence Of Any Kind Has Not Just Pain, And Not Just Hurt, But Has Knowledge. Knowledge Of Male Supremacy. Knowledge Of What It Is. Knowledge Of What It Feels Like. And Can Begin To Think Strategically About How To Stop It. We Are Living Under A Reign Of Terror. Now What I Want To Say Is That I Want Us To Stop Accepting That That's Normal. And The Only Way That We Can Stop Accepting That That's Normal Is If We Refuse To Have Amnesia Everyday Of Our Lives.

We Are Born Into A World In Which Sexual Possibilities Are Narrowly Circumscribed. . . . We Are Programmed By The Culture As Surely As Rats Are Programmed To Make The Arduous Way Through The Scientist's Maze, And That Programming Operates On Every Level Of Choice And Action.

Being A Jew, One Learns To Believe In The Reality Of Cruelty And One Learns To Recognize Indifference To Human Suffering As A Fact.

We As Women Know That There Are No Disembodied Processes; That All History Originates In Human Flesh; That All Oppression Is Inflicted By The Body Of One Against The Body Of Another; That All Social Change Is Built On The Bone And Muscle, And Out Of The Flesh And Blood, Of Human Creators.

No Phallic Hero, No Matter What He Does To Himself Or To Another To Prove His Courage, Ever Matches The Solitary, Existential Courage Of The Woman Who Gives Birth.