Adrienne Rich notes dryly that "the first verbal attack slung at the woman who demonstrates a primary loyalty to herself and other women is man-hater."… [On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose, 1966–1978] continues to offer its primary loyalties to women. The author also refuses to allow her very real compassion for men (which an astute reader will not miss) to defuse her conclusions, nor does she parade evidence of her "humanism" (a word Rich has elsewhere said she finds false and will no longer use).

On Lies, Secrets, and Silence can be seen as one woman's journey past obligatory "humanism" …, to the position of a woman who does not give a damn about such voices because she is talking to women…. The shift occurs halfway through the book, in 1974. The earlier Rich is capable of assuming (in "The Antifeminist Woman") that equal pay is "serious" and housework trivial...