The Radicalesbians on disengaging from male-defined response patterns

Woman Identified Woman by Radicalesbians

In the essay entitled, "Woman identified woman," the organization Radicalesbians discusses the crucial issue of identifying women as reinforces of the perpetuation of oppression in human society. This means that prejudice and oppression against women cannot be eliminated nor gradually lessened, primarily because women will always act against the interest of their own sector. However, it is important to bear in mind that what makes women reinforce this oppression upon themselves is the result of a long history of living under the social structure of patriarchy.

Addressing these important issues in the essay, the argument of the Radicalesbians involves a three-pronged analysis of the social condition of women's oppression in the contemporary society. First, they talk about the nature of lesbianism and its challenges in a male-dominated society; second, they go further in their critique of acceptance of lesbianism in the society to include on a larger scale the acceptance of women to women homosexuals and how non-acceptance is a reflection of the long history of oppression against women; and lastly, how these behavior and thinking by the women sector is actually based on social structured determined and developed by the males. It is thus the essay's primary goal to induce action and protest against women prejudice and oppression by enjoining women to elicit change within the sector, which means 'breaking down' the barriers that patriarchy has put to limit the capabilities and potential of women in their society.

In the texts that follow, these three main issues are discussed and analyzed critically with references from the essay.

In discussing the nature of lesbianism, Radicalesbians resort to emotional appeals in order to convince their audience, the women sector, in trying to generate understanding about the state of the women sector (lesbians included) in the contemporary society. The essay defines a lesbian as "the rage of all women condensed to the point of explosion. She is the woman who ... acts in accordance with her inner compulsion to be a more complete and freer human being than her society ... " This passage obviously introduces the concept of being a lesbian based on a cause-and-effect definition, which is more descriptive than definitive. This is vital in conditioning the tone of the essay, which advocates for the 'liberation' of women and homosexuality among women, two important issues that arise from the long history of the oppression of patriarchy in society, even at the present period.

The essay argues that lesbianism is not an isolated issue that must be confronted by lesbians alone; rather, the issue of homosexuality among women should be addressed by the women sector in general. This is essential because the issue of homosexuality is an offshoot of the prevalent culture of contemporary society, which continues to oppress and express prejudice against women. This form of oppression is reflected in the way people regard homosexuality between men and women: evidently, society accepts the idea of a homosexual male than female. As Radicalesbians attests, "The grudging admiration felt for the tomboy and the queasiness felt around a sissy boy point to the same thing: the contempt in which women -- or those who play a female role -- are held. And the investment in keeping women in that contemptuous role is very great. Lesbian is the word, the label, the condition that holds women in line." This passage demonstrates how, even in the issue of homosexuality, women oppression remains evident and reinforced by the society, most especially the women.

The essay's strongest argument is its main point, which discusses and analyzes how the emergence and development of women oppression, be they heterosexual or homosexual, are perpetuated by the social structures in society that are primarily determined and created by males. In what is known as the "male-defined response patterns," Radicalesbians discuss how the women sector's acceptance of male homosexuality over female homosexuality reflect the fact that women's realities as the most marginalized sector in the society led to the reinforcement and creation of 'culture of oppression' among women. This culture of oppression is considered male-defined because " ... women resist relating on all levels to other women who will reflect their own oppression, their own secondary status, their own self-hate. For to confront another woman is finally to confront one's self -- the self we have gone to such lengths to avoid." This statement makes a convincing and reflective insight about women's submissiveness and the state of women's liberation from prejudice in the contemporary society.