DORIS LESSING
191
was able to paint, it was as if a whole invisible chorus of men were
shouting at her: "Women can't paint! Women can't write!" And
against this great psychic barrier, she had to force herself to paint. There
is another aspect of this view which is not easy to see for what it is; that
is, that women are superior to men in some quite extraordinary, mystic
way. You'll often find a man saying, "oh my wife is much better than I
am; women are much finer creatures than men." And I noticed as a small
girl
that this usually came at a time when this man was feeling guilty
about something. Now, the kingpin, the underlying thing that holds all
this together, is that there is a man's world and a woman's world, and
that is how things should be, and the women's movements have rein–
forced this division and continue to do so. And I have to say that this
traditional view is still alive and well in those countries that we call the
third world. It's changed quite a lot here, but it has not changed there.
The first time it struck me that old things were going on under new
names was when "rap sessions" came in - that is, women talking among
each other about their problems - and were presented as a completely
new phenomenon. The fact of the matter is that women have always sat
around talking about their problems since time began, but it was what
the sociologists call an "informal" activity. It did not have a name. I
remember our taking a vow that we would never be like our mothers,
who sat around in kitchens, complaining about their lives and talking
about men. One generation rolls by and something that we despised
becomes a part of revolutionary activity.
The women's movement also said that they had created friendships
with each other for the first time. If there's one thing that women have
always done, it is to support each other and to be friends with each
other within the highly structured, male society. The point is that the
sixties did not create this. They thought so because they were mostly
young women, who do tend, in fact, to drop their girlfriends if a man
comes into sight, but usually quite temporarily. I am not saying that "rap
sessions" are either good or bad. The only point I'm making is that it is
the same as has always happened, but has a new label slapped on it.
As for the accusation about women being too personal, unable to
look
at large issues, I want at this point to quote a piece some time ago
in
Ms.
Magazine about me, and the entire piece was about the view of
one of my characters about the female orgasm. Now, I've done quite a
lot of things in my life which the women's movement, I should have
thought, would approve of; but to be reduced to one of my characters'
views on the female orgasm made me extremely annoyed and I began to
wonder if this movement was for me at all. This was when I began to
think
it was not.
Now, this business about our intuition, our sensitivity, our peace-
