ADRIENNE RICH
37
ever much they consciously may wish for an end to sexual caste, they
still live in the unacknowledged cave of their own subjectivity, their
denied fears and longings ; and few men can bear to confront that
shadow-world . For patriarchy, however much it has failed them,
however much it divides them from themselves , is still
their
order,
confirming them in privilege. They are protected from seriously ad–
dressing the issues of sexual caste and institutionalized misogyny, in
large part by the central contradiction at the heart of patriarchy : the
idea of the sacredness of motherhood, the redemptive power of
women as means, and her degradation in the human species .
