A Left-Handed Commencement Address: Power Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Sentence)

Quote #4

I'm not talking about sex; that's a whole other universe, where man and woman are on their own. I'm talking about society, the so-called man's world of institutionalized competition, aggression, violence, authority, and power. (43-44)

Don't you think it's interesting that Le Guin doesn't want to talk about sex, in a speech where gender differences are prevalent? Maybe she thought that'd be going down too much of a different path. (Or maybe she had a strict time limit. Who knows?) Regardless, a discussion of sex, power, and gender differences could've gotten pretty heated.

Quote #5

All that the Warrior denies and refuses is left to us and the men who share it with us and therefore, like us, can't play doctor, only nurse, can't be warriors, only civilians, can't be chiefs, only Indians. (57-58)

If women can't be doctors, or soldiers, or leaders, then it's much, much harder to have power in a society that values all those things. By excluding them, they are being systematically oppressed by their own culture. Le Guin is fed up with the current situation, and thinks that women need to find their own way to gain their own type of power.

Quote #6

I hope you are never victims, but I hope you have no power over other people. (67)

That's, uhh… gonna be tough. Even Le Guin admits that our society is built on a power hierarchy, so you're either above or below somebody… right?