Kate Southall’s Reviews > New French Feminisms: An Anthology > Status Update

If to be a hysteric is to suffer in one's body the something that does not come from the body but from elsewhere; if to be a hysteric is to suffer in order to understand, then yes, in this society where one must sell one's ability to work in order to live, we are hysterics. There is nothing in this syndrome that qualifies women particularly, only the history of mentalities, jurisdictions, revolts, and witch burnings.

They are a lost cause. Men don't know what's what any more. Their most backward attitude is their desire to continue ruling. Men are like old kings who think they are still in power when they have ceased to reign. And I think that the various other aspects of their retrograde behavior stem directly from their most important regressive stance: they still want to rule.

One must not wage war on man. This is his way of attaining value. Deny in order to afford. Kill to love. One must simply deflate his values with the needle of ridicule.

Explain to me why the most intelligent man whose mind is the most scientifically advanced about the laws of procreation can turn around and start thinking like a rabbit… you, who are usually so eager to display your skill, so proud of your discoveries, you have hidden away in your drawers for half a century those inventions which would have allowed woman herself biologically to triumph over woman’s destiny.