In contrast, the conjugal apostates have always cultivated a critical distance, sometimes even wholesale defiance in relation to these roles. And they are creative women, who tend to read a lot and lead a rich life of the mind: “They live beyond the range of the male gaze, beyond that of most others, for their solitude is populated with works of art and with people, living and dead, dear as well as unknown, encounters with whom—whether in flesh and blood or in thought, through their oeuvres—form the foundations to the women’s sense of identity.”40 These women consider themselves individuals,
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