“Women have no rights, Don, except what men allow us. Men are more aggressive and powerful, and they run the world. …”
…
“Men and women aren’t different species, Ruth. Women do everything men do.”
“Do they?” .. She mutters something that could be “My Lai” and looks away. “All the endless wars …” Her voice is a whisper. “All the huge authoritarian organizations for doing unreal things. Men live to struggle against each other; we’re just part of the battlefields. It’ll never change unless you change the whole world. …”
…
“For Christ’s sake, Ruth, they’re aliens!” [when she asks to go with them]”I’m used to it,” she says absently. …
from “The Women Men Don’t See,” James Tiptree, Jr.
*
“Intelligence simply hasn’t evolved there,” they reported. “Social structure is at the level of crude incubation ritual with some migratory clanning. Frankly, it looks unnestworthy. A pesky lot of mammals have clobbered up the place with broken shells. Of interest only to students of pseudo-evolution.”
from “All the Kinds of Yes,” James Tiptree, Jr.
1 comments
“The Women Men Don’t See” is a fabulous story. I teach it in Women’s Lit and students love it (well those middle-aged and above.) The last line is great: “Two of our Opossums are missing.”