# Quote — Monique Wittig, The Straight Mind

> men are not born with a faculty for the universal and ... women are not reduced at birth to the particular. The universal has been, and is continually, at every moment, appropriated by men. It does not happen by magic, it must be done. It is an act, a criminal act, perpetrated by one class against another. It is an act carried out at the level of concepts, philosophy, politics. ("The Mark of Gender" 1985)

- Author: [Monique Wittig](https://www.leafyquotes.com/monique-wittig.md)
- Book: [The Straight Mind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/monique-wittig/the-straight-mind.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Monique_Wittig#The_Straight_Mind_(1992)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/monique-wittig/the-straight-mind/men-are-not

## More from this book

> ..."woman" has meaning only in heterosexual systems of thought and heterosexual economic systems. Lesbians are not women. (from "The Straight Mind" 1980, p. 32)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/monique-wittig/the-straight-mind/woman-has-meaning.md)

> The class struggle is precisely that which resolves the contradictions between two opposed classes by abolishing them at the same time that it constitutes and reveals them as classes. ("The Category of Sex")

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/monique-wittig/the-straight-mind/the-class-struggle.md)

> there is no 'feminine writing' ... and one makes a mistake is using and giving currency to this expression. ("The Point of View: Universal or Particular?" 1980)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/monique-wittig/the-straight-mind/there-is-no-feminine.md)