what if conceptualizing polarity as day and night instead of feminine and masculine doesn’t adequately disrupt the hierarchical dualism of gender—given that historically the day has been the purview of men/public life and women have been relegated to private life/night?

addendum: the organization of public/day life with men and private/night life with women is only part of the story. because of course enslaved Black and Brown women and men labored by day and were abused by night, and that is also part of the cultural context.

this history of exploitation was and is ongoing in the disparate realities of class and access to wealth. working in the daytime has long been a reality of women of color, before white women even began to demand the right to work and earn a living.