A student writes:
I can identify with the protagonist of Bombal’s House of Mist because I am a woman and, like all women, I want a man to love me and desire me sexually.
I have really got to wonder where she has spent the last 25 years of her life.
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Clarissa's Blog 
With so little rewriting it would be so appropriate
“I can identify with the protagonist of Bombal’s House of Mist because I am a human being and, like almost all human beings, I want someone to love me and desire me sexually”
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I think that the essay would only win if the student removed this entire childish passage from it. But I’m too tired of arguing with her about the meaning of the word “surrealism.”
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Now a serious question: in an essay can’t one use generalisations, without qualifying all the time “like most heterosexual women”, “except gay people, of course”, etc. ? In articles don’t critics often state their point without using “in my humble opinion”, “it may be so in 99%, but in this 1%” ? Of course, sometimes this 1% is important, but I got an impression that many times one can make general, positive statements too.
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” in an essay can’t one use generalisations, without qualifying all the time “like most heterosexual women”, “except gay people, of course”, etc. ?”
– How would one realistically know anything about “most heterosexual women”? Remember, we are talking literally about billions of people. How can such a statement have any value for anybody than the person’s psychoanalyst?
” I got an impression that many times one can make general, positive statements too.”
– I need an example to be able to say specifically of a statement has a place in a scholarly work.
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// How would one realistically know anything about “most heterosexual women”?
Making generalizations is a must to function in the world. The problem lies in taking it too far.
Most women don’t die virgins, aren’t self-defining as asexual and want to have sex (while desiring themselves) and be desired.
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“Making generalizations is a must to function in the world. ”
– I’m not talking about functioning in the world. I’m talking about writing scholarly work. And what you just did is called extrapolation. 🙂
What value do you think scholarship will get from being peppered with such unprovable and basically meaningless generalizations?
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I’m heterosexual and I find the idea of being loved and desired sexually kind of gross. Basically if your personality doesn’t interest me I’m not going to want your disgusting emotions and paws all over me.
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You see? This is why I say that these generalizations are completely useless. People are different and trying to project on the basis of your own experiences is useless. It is also very meaningless.
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