Power, Representation and Feminist critique that woman's sexuality is controlled, as is her reproductive potential According to Hosken, male sexual politics"in Africa and around the world "share the same political goal: to assure female dependence and subservience by any and all means"(14). Physical women(rape, sexual assault, excision, infibulation, etc. )is thus carried out with an astonishing consensus among men in the world"(14). Here, women are defined consistently as the victims of male control-the sex ually oppressed. 7 Although it is true that the potential of male violence against women circumscribes and elucidates their social position to a certain extent, defining women as archetypal victims freezes them into objects-who-defend-themselves, men into "subjects-who-perpetrate violence, and (every)society into powerless(read: women) and powerful (read: men) groups of people. Male violence must be theorized and in- terpreted within specific societies, in order both to understand it better and to effectively organize to change it. Sisterhood cannot be assumed on the basis of gender; it must be forged in concrete historical and political practice and analysis Women as universal dependents Beverly Lindsays conclusion to the book Comparative Perspectives of Third World Women: The Impact of race, Sex and Class(1983, 298, 306) states:"dependency relationships, based upon race, sex and class,are being perpetuated through social, educational, and economic institutions These are the linkages among Third World Women. Here, as in other places, Lindsay implies that third world women constitute an identifiable group purely on the basis of shared dependencies. If shared dependencies were all that was needed to bind us together as a group, third world women would always be seen as an apolitical group with no subject status Instead, if anything, it is the common context of political struggle against class, race, gender, and imperialist hierarchies that may constitute third world women as a strategic group at this historical juncture. Lindsay also states that linguistic and cultural differences exist between vietnamese and black American women, but both groups are victims of race, sex and class. Again black and vietnamese women are characterized by their victim status Similarly, examine statements such as "my analysis will start by stat ing that all African women are politically and economically dependent Cutrufelli 1983, 13),Nevertheless, either overtly or covertly, prostitu tion is still the main if not the only source of work for African women Cutrufelli 1983, 33). All African women are dependent Prostitution is the only work option for African women as a group Both statements are illustrative of generalizations sprinkled liberally through a recent Zed