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PARTISAN REVIEW
to the fon y-hour work week in the situa ti on of our new heroines of
freedom. T he sexual da ring, appetite and responsiveness now adver–
ti sed in fi cti ons by women about women is epic. Except in pornogra–
phy surely one has never met sexua l activity in such qua ntity. Should
there be no man immedia tely ava il abl e, ano ther woman must be at
once prov ided , or some mechanical instrument o f gra tifi ca ti on–
vibra tors a re endemi c. Indeed in
K inflicks
the vibra tor precipita tes one
of the few trul y funny scenes of libera ted fi cti on-it is no t a litera ture
notabl e for its humor-when a young woman who has given u p on
both men and women as lovers desen s a les bian pan y in a Vermont
fema le commune for her usua l so lita ry victory o f selfhood ; but th e
wiring in the fa rmhouse is faulty, she bl ows a fu se, and the hou se and
its reve ll ers are p lunged into blackness from which they can be rescued
onl y by the local fire company-the understanding of wha t is goin g on
in thi s house and wh at caused the blackout dawns on these Vermont
volunteers onl y slowly. So a rduous is the heterosexua l ardor of liber–
a ted hero ines tha t they mu st have recourse to soothing ba ths in baking
soda, so monumental their respon siveness tha t it is to be measured no t
by the shaking of the eanh but by the crash of planets. In po int of chi c,
th e multi p le female orgasm has somewha t the same pl ace in present–
day liberated fi cti on tha t cassero le cookery had in Ma ry McCanh y's
Th e Group.
Wh ether men are fl a ttered by the invita ti on tha t is being
extended to them or fri ghtened out of their wits, I have no way o f
knowing.
It
does seem proper, however, to stress th e o bserva tion tha t
onl y hard- core pornograph ers of the sado-masochi stic variety, but no
seri o us ma le authors with whose work one is acqua inted , not even
Henry Mi ll er, have trea ted women as much like sex obj ects as women
writers now trea t themselves.
And no more than I can speak with any cen ainty about the effect
this libera ted fi ction has on ma le readers can I speak with certainty of
its effect upon women readers th roughout the popula ti on , except to
propose the possibility tha t it may not be entirely comforting. There
woul d seem to be a widespread beli ef tha t ours is an age of universa l
sexual enlightenment. It is no t a belief to which I subscribe; in my
experi ence wha t an age is supposed to think or fee l and wha t actual
people think and feel are no t always the same thing. No do ubt there
has been progress in our century in th e di spelling of sexual supersti–
ti on and fear. But in sexual ma tters, however ea rnes tl y we undertake to
educate peopl e, it is surely eas ier to scare and confu se than it is to
instruct-ou r sexual emo ti ons inhabit da rk a reas of the conscio usness
fed by uncharted streams. T hen too, how reli able is the teaching? How
