When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision

What does misogynist (male critics) mean? Merriam Webster: woman hater

Page 540 “The awakening of dead or sleeping consciousness has already affected the lives of millions of women, even those who don’t know it yet.” Powerful. Knowledge is the first step to change. I love the ‘dead or sleeping consciousness’ as describing the complacency of one’s own situation. “The sleepwalker are coming awake, and for the first time this awakening has a collective reality; it is no longer such a lonely thing to open one’s eyes.” How motivational! It reminds me of Tool’s Third Eye “That we are all one consciousness..."

Jane Harrison states that women are written as a dream or a terror but not vice versa. We had a similar discussion about Anzaldua and Adams Virgin and Whore theory.
I think her theory on women being represented the way they are is true for our current music industry. I can’t find female artists I like. They are all sex icons with no truth in their lyrics. Ugh.

Page 542, Rich talks about men writing for men and women writing for men also. I have never considered the gender of my audience when writing. How annoying this must be.
Page 543: “These women [in poetry written by males] were almost always beautiful, but threatened with the loss of beauty, the loss of youth-the fate worse than death. Or, they were beautiful and died young….” This essay was written in 1971 and these beliefs still apply. Beauty and youth is still considered so important in women. It’s gotten better, I think. Well, I heard someone once say that feminism has turned into the woman’s right to be as ‘slutty’ and blatant about her sexuality as she wants and nobody can say anything. This same person said that this was a step backwards in women’s liberation.

Page 545: “If there were doubt, if there were periods of null depression or active despairing, these could only mean that I was ungrateful, insatiable, perhaps a monster.”
This is great stuff. It could be applied to recovery beliefs. One must always be grateful. This is not always true, however. We should not be sheep. If we are not angry, how can things change? They tell us not to play the 'victim role' but damnit, sometime we are the victim.

Rich mentioning Caroline Herschel in this essay is a perfect example of the inequality in our culture. I hope to find similar examples that will back up my essay.
Rich states that we (women) should write with anger (if need be) and not be detached or objective. I don’t think this would apply to my essay, but we will see.