Jeff Davis | Vent Section Manager

There have been some interesting comments in the feedback forms lately. I've been accused of being preachy, being self-righteous, you name it, they're all the same. I'll be the first to admit I can get pushy with my ideas and I won't try to make excuses for it. Nonetheless, I was inspired. I want to show you someone who is very, very preachy. If you honestly think my writing is that sanctimonious, then you really need to see some of Monique Wittig's work.

Wittig, from what I can gather, is an extremely intelligent, radical feminist. She's written several books, including "The Lesbian Body," "The Straight Mind and Other Essays," and countless other works that spout some great ideas...and some ideas that are based on more generalizations and stereotypes than anything I've ever read.

My roommate Shaun, a grad student in the English Department here, let me read some of her theories. He's taking a Literary Scholarship class and has a binder full of them. He gave me a warning: "Jeff, if you're a living, breathing human being, this stuff will make you want to tear it up."

Of what I read of Wittig, she has one particular idea I am quite fond of. When you label a person anything, be it "lesbian," "gay," "feminist," or what have you, you begin to see the person as that label and only that label. It becomes confining, and likens those labeled to a certain role that becomes difficult to escape. It makes people think that one lesbian, for example, is no different from another. If we all take a good look around, we see this everywhere. Some of us have gotten beyond it and some of us have not. I think she's right.

But here's where she assumes too much: she believes all men consciously enjoy dominating women. She believes sex, marriage, and even heterosexuality come from oppression.

Don't take what I say there as gospel. That is a very condensed paragraph and it leaves a lot out. I searched the Internet for some Wittig-related sites that explain her theories much better than I can. They're rather interesting to say the least. Whether or not you agree with her is up to you:

QueerTheory.com
University of Arizona
Women.it
WomenWriters.net
French Feminism

I don't know what makes her believe what she does. I think she's bought into a very distant, cruel idea of what all men are like. As we all know, everyone is different. Her theories about heterosexuality and men are interesting when put against the backdrop of her label theory.

Maybe she's saying something more, in the style of Mary Wollstonecraft. Perhaps this is just an extremely crafty use of language, getting the reader fired up. I think it's extremely preachy. How else am I supposed to look at "marriage is enslavement" when my parents have spent the best 22 years of their lives together? I know for sure that I am attracted to girls...anyway, you know where I'm going.

No matter how much I disagree with her, I really respect Ms. Wittig. She threw a chunk of her heart onto paper and to this day continues to stand up for what she believes. And what we believe is what we see as right. Usually.

Now please excuse me, I have to write about the double-breasted toucan that will be extinct in the rain forest by American multi-national corporations harvesting the wood for paneling in BMWs and the woe I am feeling because you people don't care...