riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (10/27/83)
(The following is adapted from a book of literary criticism, "How to
Suppress Women's Writing" by Joanna Russ, which was published by the
University of Texas Press this month.)
----
How to suppress women's writing? Begin by saying/writing/thinking:
She didn't write it.
But if it's clear she did the deed...
She wrote it, but she shouldn't have.
(It's political, sexual, masculine, feminist. "Coarse," wrote
one critic of Browning's "Aurora Leigh.")
She wrote it, but look what she wrote about.
(The bedroom, the kitchen, her family. Other women!)
She wrote it, but "she" isn't really an artist, and "it" isn't really art.
(It's a thriller, a romance, a children's book. It's sci fi!)
She wrote it, but she only wrote one of it.
("'Jane Eyre.' Poor dear, that's all she ever...")
She wrote it, but she had help.
(Robert Browning, Branwell Bronte. Her own "masculine side.")
She wrote it, but she's an anomaly.
(Woolf. With Leonard's help...)
She wrote it BUT...
Congratulations! You have just belittled/distorted/neglected/suppressed
women's writing. But don't worry. It's a tradition...
----
Prentiss Riddle
{ihnp4,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle
riddle@ut-sally.UUCP