In The Critical Response to Ralph Ellison, Robert .J. Butler ends his overview of Invisible Man`s critical reception by stating, “Certainly much more needs to be said about Ellison`s envisioning of female experience and how feminine values are an important part of his vision” (xxxvii). Much more needs to be said because Ellison`s stance on the experiences of females has not been so clear, especially in his epic novel, Invisible Man. The question remains: Is Ellison`s widely-read novel a critique of sexism in America or is the novel itself deeply marred by it? This article revisits the second chapter of Invisible Man - the “Trueblood episode” - to argue that Ellison has Jim Trueblood fashion a crude story of father-daughter incest to combat the impotence brought on by a white male supremacist society that bonds together over racism. Although many have correctly claimed that Trueblood`s tall tale is told at the expense of his daughter, who, like most of the female characters in the book, is denied complexity arid humanity, this article argues that Ellison`s chapter subtly challenges patriarchal phallocentrism by hinting at a proto-femiriist message in suggesting what some feminists would later claim that father-daughter incest is a normal function of heteropatriarchy, not a breakdown in the social order.