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men and women in order to prevent us from acting to end
our oppression and challenging their power. As the question
of homosexuality has become public, reformists define it as
a. private question of who you sleep with in order to
sidetrack om understanding of the politics of sex. For the
lesbian/feminist, it is not private; it is a political question of
oppression, domination, and power. Reformists offer
solutions which make no basic changes in the system which
oppresses us, solutions which keep power in the hands of
the oppressor. The only way-oppressed people end their
oppression is by seizing power: people whose rule depends
on the subordination of others do not voluntarily stop
oppressing others. Our subordination is the basis of male
power.
SEXISM IS THE ROOT OF ALL OTHER OPPRESSIONS
The first division of labor, in pre-history, was based on
sex:. men hunted, women built the villages, took care of
children, and farmed. Women collectively controlled the
land, language, culture, and the communities. Men
conquered women with the weapons that they developed
for hunting as it became clear that women were leading a
more stable, peaceful, and desirable existence. We do not
yet know exactly how this conquest took place, but it is
clear that the original imperialism was male over female:
the male claiming the female body and her services as his
territory (or property).
H
aving secured the domination of women, men
continued this pattern of suppressing people,
now on the basis of tribe, race, and class.
Although there have been numerous battles
over class, race and nation during the past 3000 years,
none of them has brought the liberation of women.
While these other forms of oppression must also be
ended, there is no reason
to
believe that our liberation
will come with the smashing of capitalism, racism, or
1972
DRAWING by WENDY CADDEN, OAKLAND
imperialism today. Women will be free only when we
concentrate on fighting male supremacy.
Our war against male supremacy does, however, involve
attacking the later day dominations based on class, race,
and nation. As lesbians who are outcasts from every group,
it would be suicidal to perpetuate these man-made divisions
among ourselves. We have no heterosexual privileges, and
when we publicly assert our lesbianism, those of us who
had them, lose many of our class and race privileges. Most
of women's privileges are granted to us by our relationships
to ruling men(fathers, husbands, boyfriends) whom we now
reject. This does not mean that there is no racism or class
chauvinism within us: we must destroy those divisive
remnants of privileged behavior among ourselves as the first
step toward their destruction in the society. Race, class,
and national oppressions come from men, serve ruling class
white men's interests, and have no place in a
woman-identified revolution.
LESBIANISM IS THE BASIC THREAT
TO MALE SUPREMACY
Lesbianism is a threat to the ideological, political,
personal, and economic basis of male supremacy. We
threaten the ideology of male supremacy by destroying its
lies about female inferiority, weakness, passivity, and by
denying women's 'innate' need for men. We don't need men
to tell us who we are. Lesbians define our own selves and
literally do not need men (even for procreation if the
science of cloning is developed).
The lesbian's independence and refusal to support one
man undermines the personal power that men exercise over
women. Our rejection of heterosexual sex challenges male
domination in its most individual and common form. Our
rejection of heterosexuality as an institution challenges
collective male power. We offer all women something better
than submission to personal oppression. We offer
~he
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