Woman Hating: A Radical Look at Sexuality

Emily Bronte

T h e lessons are simple, and we learn them well.

Men and women are different, absolute opposites.

T h e heroic prince can never be confused with Cinderella, or Snow-white, or Sleeping Beauty. She could never do what he does at all, let alone better.

Men and women are different, absolute opposites.

T he good father can never be confused with the bad

mother. T h eir qualities are different, polar.

W here he is erect, she is supine. Where he is awake,

she is asleep. W here he is active, she is passive. Where

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Woman Hating

she is erect, or awake, or active, she is evil and must be

destroyed.

It is, structurally at least, that simple.

She is desirable in her beauty, passivity, and victimization. She is desirable because she is beautiful, passive, and victimized.

Her other persona, the evil mother, is repulsive in

her cruelty. She is repulsive and she must be destroyed.

She is the female protagonist, the nonmale source of

power which must be defeated, obliterated, before male

power can fully flower. She is repulsive because she is

evil. She is evil because she acts.

She, the evil persona, is a cannibal. Cannibalism is

repulsive. She is devouring and magical. She is devouring and the male must not be devoured.

There are two definitions of woman. There is the

good woman. She is a victim. There is the bad woman.

She must be destroyed. The good woman must be

possessed. The bad woman must be killed, or punished.

Both must be nullified.

The bad woman must be punished, and if she is

punished enough, she will become good. To be punished enough is to be destroyed. There is the good woman. She is the victim. The posture of victimization, the passivity of the victim demands abuse.

Women strive for passivity, because women want to

be good. The abuse evoked by that passivity convinces

women that they are bad. The bad need to be punished,

destroyed, so that they can become good.

Even a woman who strives conscientiously for passivity sometimes does something. That she acts at all provokes abuse. The abuse provoked by that activity

Onceuponatlme: The Moral of the Story

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convinces her that she is bad. T h e bad need to be punished, destroyed, so that they can become good.

T h e moral o f the story should, one would think,

preclude a happy ending. It does not. T h e moral o f the

story is the happy ending. It tells us that happiness for