The revolutionary woman knows the world she seeks to overthrow is precisely one in which love between equal human beings is well nigh impossible. We are still part of the ironical working-out of this, our own cruel contradiction. One of the most compelling facts which can unite women and make us act is the overwhelming indignity or bitter hurt of being regarded as simply __he other_, __n object_, __ommodity_, __hing_. We act directly from a consciousness of the impossibility of loving or being loved without distortion. But we must still demand now the preconditions of what is impossible at the moment. It is a most disturbing dialectic, our praxis of pain.
Society conspires against her from early infancy. Her brain is steadily filled with plaster until it sets: __f you__e not married by the time you__e twenty-five, you__l have good reason to be ashamed_; __f you laugh, you won__ look dignified_ ; __f your face betrays your feelings, you__l look coarse_; __f you mention the existence of a single body hair, you__e repulsive_ ; __f a boy kisses you on the cheek in public, you__e a whore_; if you enjoy eating, you__e a pig_; __f you take pleasure in sleeping, you__e no better than a cow_; and so on.These precepts would be merely anecdotal if they weren__ taken so much to heart.
Stupeur et tremblements
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Society conspires against her from early infancy. Her brain is steadily filled with plaster until it sets: __f you__e not married by the time you__e twenty-five, you__l have good reason to be ashamed_; __f you laugh, you won__ look dignified_ ; __f your face betrays your feelings, you__l look coarse_; __f you mention the existence of a single body hair, you__e repulsive_ ; __f a boy kisses you on the cheek in public, you__e a whore_; if you enjoy eating, you__e a pig_; __f you take pleasure in sleeping, you__e no better than a cow_; and so on.These precepts would be merely anecdotal if they weren__ taken so much to heart.
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