The Politics of Reality

A collection of nine essays in feminist theory, written from a lesbian feminist standpoint. The opening essay, 'Oppression', is the most widely read. Frye distinguishes oppression from ordinary suffering and illustrates it with a birdcage: examine one wire and it is hard to see why the bird cannot fly away, but step back and see how the wires are arranged and the confinement becomes obvious. She shows how double binds work, and why a small courtesy such as a man opening a door for a woman can belong to the system. 'Sexism' analyses the constant marking and announcing of sex in everyday behaviour. 'In and Out of Harm's Way' contrasts the arrogant eye, which sees others as existing for oneself, with the loving eye. Later essays reflect on anger, defend women's separatism as a form of power, examine white feminists' racism, and ask what it means for lesbians to be unseen within a dominant conceptual scheme.

The birdcage image is one of the clearest tools in philosophy for seeing how small, separate barriers add up to a structure, and the essays model careful, plain argument about everyday life.