A review by sourbutchkid
The Straight Mind: And Other Essays by Monique Wittig

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

I did struggle with understanding certain aspects of this book, but the things I did understand really resonated with me. The idea of lesbians not being women, and women as a class was particularly interesting to me. As a lesbian I really enjoyed this perspective and it was like I was getting confirmation on things I’d felt for a long time in relation to lesbians and gender and womanhood. If we live in a world that is so incredibly focused on men, where does that leave you as a lesbian? Just very very interesting and insightful. I do have some criticisms though. The comparison of women/lesbians to slaves was not….. good…. like at all. There is other language she could have used that did not position black women as separate from women as a class. I would be really interested to hear a black lesbian perspective on this…. It feels essential because I cannot ignore that very blatant flaw in the thought process. Regardless though, there are definitely a lot of very interesting ideas here and I’m glad that I took the time to read it.