Me and My Shadow

In Me and My Shadow, Jane Tompkins writes "...The public-private dichotomy , which is to say the public-private hierarchy, is a founding condition of female oppression..." I'd disagree with this statement. Tompkins is misusing the lens of feminism and in so doing she reaches a wrong conclusion. In some kinds of critical writing, formal and informal language should not be mixed. This has nothing to do with female oppression. Later in the article she shows her bias again by proclaiming her disdain of men and overgeneralizing about how men show their feelings. Rather than looking through the lens of feminism, she should strive to be more objective and accurate in her pronouncements. She seems to be saying that "All men are pigs." Tompkins claims that she has been conditioned to feel embarrassed when speaking personally in a professional context. I find this hard to believe. Sometimes there is an expectation that one should not do this but that's a long way from being conditioned to write that way. Again, what writing style one should use depends upon the context. If a woman feel likes she always has to write in the father tongue, not the mother tongue, that is not necessarily due to female oppression by men. It could be due to just a self-imposed "straight jacket".