Summary Of One Is Not Born A Woman By Wittig

Monique Wittig’s “One is Not Born a Woman” and Adrienne Rich’s “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Experience” are two vital pieces of feminist writing that convey the idea that lesbian identity provides liberation for women from the restraints of a male dominated society. Each article describes how men oppress women in heterosexual relationships by assuming a dominant role and withholding power from women. Each article then dives into how women can change this conventional aspect of ‘females’ conceding to male dominance’. They both tend to agree that gender plays an extremely vital role in sexuality and freedom. The specifics regarding ‘man’ and ‘woman’ differ between each article. Wittig believes the categories of gender need to be diminished while Rich argues women should categorize themselves more and embrace their identity. …show more content…
What Wittig is arguing here is that we should not conform to fit a preconceived notion of what is “man” and what is “women”. These fixed perceptions of gender and the levels of power that accompany each gender ‘group’ need to be abolished. The labels of gender should not come to brand people based off of predetermined norms. Men and women should naturally be thought of as equal, without the limiting determination that can be made from a label such as gender. Wittig explains that even if women were the dominant influence in a relationship as compared to men there would still be a problem. The liberating force is homosexuality; this prevents men and women from being placed in separate