Monique Wittig Quotes
Not only do we naturalize history, but also consequently we naturalize the social phenomena which express our oppression, making change impossible
Wittig, Monique. "One Is Not Born a Woman." The Straight Mind and Other Essays, Beacon Press, 1992, p. 11.
Alexie, an American Indian, studied wrote about the phenomenon whereby the Indians who were brutalized and attacked by whites with modern weapons and other technological advantages, in the process of defending themselves and their way of life became oppressors to whites in many situations where they could dominate a local scene. Likewise, the Israelis, who were totally oppressed in the Middle East for years and dominated by the more numerous Arabs with over a dozen established national armies attacking the Jewish civilian population when Israel first became a state. However the Jews survived and each time the Arabs attacked and further oppressed the Israelis, the Jews became stronger until at some point the became oppressors of many of the Arabs. The oppressors became the oppressed and vica versa.
See Howard Zinn, 1922-2010 {38477} for a later, narrower view with respect to America.
He was of course not the President then. But the stands that politicians took with respect to the rebellion of the South often determined their political futures. See {640752} for another future President’s quotation on the subject.
Monique Wittig was a French author, philosopher and feminist theorist who wrote about overcoming socially enforced gender roles and who coined the phrase "heterosexual contract". She published her first novel, L'Opoponax, in 1964. Her second novel, Les Guérillères (1969), was a landmark in lesbian feminism.
