Adrienne Rich Women And Honor
Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying (1975)
These notes were first read at the Hartwick Women Writers' Workshop, founded and directed by
Beverly Tanenhaus, at Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York in June 1975. They were published as a pamphlet by Motheroot Press in Pittsburgh, 1977; in Heresies: A Feminist Magazine of Art and
Politics, vol. 1, no. 1; and in a French translation by the Québecois feminist press, Les Editions du
Remue-Ménage, 1979.
It is clear that among women we need a new ethics; as women, a new morality. The problem of speech, of language, continues to be primary. For if in our speaking we are breaking silences long established, "liberating ourselves from our secrets" in the words of Beverly Tanenhaus, this is in itself a first kind of action. I wrote Women and Honor in an effort to make myself more honest, and to understand the terrible negative power of the lie in relationships between women. Since it was published, other women have spoken and written of things I did not include: Michelle Cliff's "Notes on Speechlessness" in Sinister Wisdom no. 5 led Catherine Nicolson (in the same issue) to write of the power of "deafness", the frustration of our speech by those who do not want to hear what we have to say. Nelle Morton has written of the act of "hearing each other into speech" [Nelle Morton,
"Beloved Image!", paper delivered at the National Conference of the American Academy of Religion,
San Francisco, California, December 28, 1977]. How do we listen? How do we make it possible for another to break her silence? These are some of the questions which follow on the ones I've raised here. (These notes are concerned with relationships between and among women. When "personal relationship" is referred to, I mean a relationship between two women. It will be clear in what follows when I am talking about women's relationships with men.)
The old, male idea of honour. A man's "word" sufficed - to other men - without guarantee.
"Our Land Free, Our Men Honest,
These notes were first read at the Hartwick Women Writers' Workshop, founded and directed by
Beverly Tanenhaus, at Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York in June 1975. They were published as a pamphlet by Motheroot Press in Pittsburgh, 1977; in Heresies: A Feminist Magazine of Art and
Politics, vol. 1, no. 1; and in a French translation by the Québecois feminist press, Les Editions du
Remue-Ménage, 1979.
It is clear that among women we need a new ethics; as women, a new morality. The problem of speech, of language, continues to be primary. For if in our speaking we are breaking silences long established, "liberating ourselves from our secrets" in the words of Beverly Tanenhaus, this is in itself a first kind of action. I wrote Women and Honor in an effort to make myself more honest, and to understand the terrible negative power of the lie in relationships between women. Since it was published, other women have spoken and written of things I did not include: Michelle Cliff's "Notes on Speechlessness" in Sinister Wisdom no. 5 led Catherine Nicolson (in the same issue) to write of the power of "deafness", the frustration of our speech by those who do not want to hear what we have to say. Nelle Morton has written of the act of "hearing each other into speech" [Nelle Morton,
"Beloved Image!", paper delivered at the National Conference of the American Academy of Religion,
San Francisco, California, December 28, 1977]. How do we listen? How do we make it possible for another to break her silence? These are some of the questions which follow on the ones I've raised here. (These notes are concerned with relationships between and among women. When "personal relationship" is referred to, I mean a relationship between two women. It will be clear in what follows when I am talking about women's relationships with men.)
The old, male idea of honour. A man's "word" sufficed - to other men - without guarantee.
"Our Land Free, Our Men Honest,