“Here and now”: the concept of social contract in the materialist lesbianism of Monique Wittig

Abstract

In this paper, I analyze the role played by the notion of social contract in the radical lesbian
thought of Monique Wittig. I argue that the wittigian idea of social contract has two dimensions: one
critical and another creative or “utopian”, as the authoress calls it. With respect to the critical dimension, I
support that Wittig finds the way of accounting for the instituent and tacit character of heterosexuality and
revealing the terms of the contract for women (heterosexualization and appropriation) through the notion of
social contract. However, the creative or “utopian” dimension lies in the possibility of modifying the pact. I
consider that the thought of Wittig about the social contract has three qualities that do not coincide with the
etymological meaning, nor agree with the classical definition of utopia: facticity, contingency and actuality.
I conclude, therefore, that the utopian dimension of the social contract does not point at the future, but it
designates the ability of each individual subject (“each one of us”, with the expression of the authoress)
to act on it in the present, “here and now” as Wittig likes to say. I also demonstrate how the wittigian
reconsideration of the concept of social contract is inscribed in her perspective of materialist lesbianism.
Keywords: Wittig, compulsory heterosexuality, lesbianism, materialist feminism, agency.