When I wrote Rubyfruit Jungle in 1971 (the year I wrote it, not the year it was published), the only way to begin to understand your situation was to take the label given to you by others, a label devised centuries, if not millennia, ago for some labels, and to understand how this became hardened oppression. That work is done. Think about it. Once you buy into a definition of yourself that has been made by others, you’re a victim. Victims draw great strength from banding together and declaring a common oppression and a common (always glorious, of course) culture. Perhaps, but you’re still a
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