Politics of Reality includes nine essays that examine sexism, the exploitation of women, the gay rights movement and other topics from a feminist perspective. -/- The essays "The Problem That Has No Name" and "A Note On Anger" have been translated into Spanish by Maria Lugones for circulation in la Asociacion Argentina de Mujeres en Filosofia.

"A Note On Anger," in The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory (Trumansburg, NY: The Crossing Press, 1983), has been translated into Spanish by Maria Lugones for circulation in la Asociacion Argentina de Mujeres en Filosofia. See the links below for the original book.

"White Woman Feminist," keynote address, New Jersey Project Conference, Rutgers University, May 30, 1992.

The common theme in this collection is rejection of assimilation, an embrace of boundary living, and a commitment to women's invention of women at and beyond the limits of patriarchy.

The category WOMEN is a central analytic category of feminism, but has been very troubled in feminist theory and philosophy. In the background of the troubles with the category WOMEN is the metaphoric image of a social category as a set and its exemplars as set members. But the category WOMEN cannot be defined as sets are defined, so that is an inappropriate metaphor. A number of feminists and race theorists turn to Wittgenstein, who offers alternative metaphors. This chapter explores (...) the powers and resonances of his metaphors—in the case of “family resemblance,” using the work of cognitive psychologists Rosch and Mervis on categories that have prototype structure. (shrink)

The three notions of illocutionary force, sentence-meaning, and speaker-meaning (what a speaker means by an utterance) have been bandied about, misused and confused in some influential papers about speech acts and, I presume, in quieter corners as well. My object here is to disentangle these notions.

Reprinted in French translation in the French feminist journal Vlasta, Fall (1984); in German translation in Beiträge zur Feministischen Theorie und Praxis 25 (1989); and in Swedish translation in Aktuell kvinnolitterature och Kultur 5 (3) (1991).

"Do You Have To Be A Lesbian To Be A Feminist?" Plenary session speech at the conference of the National Women's Studies Association, June 1990.

"Categories in Distress," given as one of two Hanna Lectures at Hamline University, April 22, 1999. A revision of this lecture was given at the meeting of the Midwest Division of the Society for Women in Philosophy, Fall 1999.

"The Problem That Has No Name," in The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory (Trumansburg, NY: The Crossing Press, 1983), has been translated into Spanish by Maria Lugones for circulation in la Asociacion Argentina de Mujeres en Filosofia. See the links below for the original book.

In this paper I present a sorting and accounting of a variety of things which fall or might fall under the rubric "saying something." The object is clarification--the illumination of an area which can be a source of much confusion in discussion and analysis of speech acts. The point of departure is Austin's initial analysis of saying, in which he tries to set out the "acts" or "doings" which are supposed to be in some sense the elements of the total (...) act of saying. From this, I develop an analysis of saying which may be seen either as an improved version of Austin's or as an alternative analysis, depending on one's assessment of the significance of its departure from Austin's initial intent or insight. I am inclined to see it as an alternative, though hardly a radical one. (shrink)

Images of species, sets, and containers, combined with an obsolete positivist theory of meaning and a curiously illogical interpretation of a structuralist understanding of meaning, together have driven feminists and their critics to find unavoidable essentialism and binary totalism in feminist theorists' use of the category WOMEN. This paper explores an enriched imagination for how categories can be structured internally and in relations to other categories, and proposes that we need to think categories simultaneously through multiple and mixed metaphors, including (...) the metaphors of a spun thread and family resemblance, and the image of correlational densities in multidimensional quality spaces. (shrink)

Lesbian Ethics seems to address a need for an alternative to heteropatriarchal ethics. That need appears to have two suspect sources: a concept of agency which requires that agents know what is right; and a notion women may have that by being "good" we can escape the degraded status of females and achieve a status of citizeness, or honorary male. Instead of providing such an ethic, the book may show us how to live without it.

This essay is adapted from Frye, Marilyn (1983). "In and Out of Harm's Way: Arrogance and Love." In The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory. Trumansburg, NY: The Crossing Press. pp. 52-83. (For more details on The Politics of Reality, see the PhilPapers link below.).

Reprinted in German translation as "Lesbische Perspektiven in bezug auf Women's Studies" in Renate Duelli-Klein, Maresi Nerad & Sigrid Metz-Göckel (eds.), Feministische Wissenschaft und Frauenstudium. Hamburg, Germany: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Hochschuldidaktik. pp. 303-310. (1982).

The French translation of Frye, Marilyn (1978). Some Reflections on Separatism and Power. Sinister Wisdom 6:30-39. See the links below for the original article.

Marilyn Frye is a noted philosopher and feminist theorist whose works include The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory and Willful Virgin: Essays in Feminism as well as various other essays and articles. Frye recently retired from teaching philosophy at Michigan State University. On February 26, 2013, the Stance staff met with Marilyn Frye to talk about her work, her life, and the status of women in the field of philosophy.

"The Necessity of Differences," a paper delivered as the Linda Singer Memorial Lecture at Miami University of Ohio, February 1994, and in a revised version, at the meeting of the Society for Women in Philosophy, Midwestern Division, Minneapolis, April 1994. A talk from this paper on a panel on "Feminist Community," sponsored by the Committee on the Status of Women at the May 1994 meetings of the American Philosophical Association, Central Division. A version of this material was delivered as the (...) Austin-Hempel Lecture at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, March 1996. (shrink)

"Andrea Dworkin's Knowledge Strategies," a talk given at a symposium in memory of Andrea Dworkin, at Michigan State University, February 2006.

Encyclopedia entry. Explains "dichotomous," "binary," "absolute opposite," and "polar opposite" as applied to social categories, explaining feminist critical concerns about gender categories. Not all categorizing is dichotomous or binary. Gender categories may function as binary or dichotomous in some contexts but not in others.

I very much welcome Professor Wilder’s debunking of Rossi’s theses and arguments and I wholeheartedly share his rejection of that sort of biological determinism and his recognition of the unnaturalness of all human behavior. That last is, I think, an essential first step toward our assuming responsibility for how things are. However, I am not as comfortable as he seems to be with the liberal anyone-can-parent line of thought. What gives me pause about that may be some of the same (...) experience and observations that make the Rossi sort of view so plausible to so many people. That is, regardless of my clear knowledge that an ability to acquire facility in the home kitchen or with infant care is not biologically determined, and also my knowledge that ability to become competent in the maintenance of the common automobile is not biologically determined either, I see many such propensities and abilities as being hardly less difficult to acquire or to lose as a gendered adult than if they had been biologically determined. In other words, the tracking into gender-correlated competencies creates a “second-nature”—each individual seems to take to some activities and practices naturally. It feels natural, one is “a natural” as a mother or as a businessman; it seems natural to all those around, as well. And, learned and human-created though it may be, it is not therefore easy to undo. (shrink)

Comment on "Patients' Rights: Ethical Questions" by Kate Millett, at The Michigan Psychoanalytic Council, February 15, 1992, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

"Essentialism," an invited paper at the meetings of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association, April 2001.

In "An Inscriptional Approach to Indirect Quotation," Israel Scheffler presented an analysis of sentences of the form '... writes that ---'. He was primarily concerned to give a nominalistic analysis of indirect discourse which would elude certain objections offered by Church. Here the question is not whether the analysis eludes those criticisms. The question is whether the analysis is correct. I shall argue that it is not.

"Intra-feminist Critique: Modes of Disengagement," invited participant on a panel on intrafeminist critique, sponsored by the Society for Women in Philosophy, at the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association Meetings, March 2001.

"Is Woman a Family-resemblance Category?" a paper delivered to the Philosophy Department of Duke University, April 1998.

The German translation of Frye, Marilyn (1980). Lesbian Perspectives on Women's Studies. Sinister Wisdom 14:3-7. See the links below for the original article.

"Ontology and Politics," in the conference "Thinking, Writing, Teaching, and Creating Social Justice," April 1994, presented as the conclusion of the Rockefeller Scholar-in-Residence program of the Center for Advanced Feminist Studies at the University of Minnesota.