Question 4:
Most of you have commented on some of the public resistance you've encountered in writing about sex. Have you also received flack in your private lives, and have all the sacrifices been worth it?
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 I have too many "specific examples" to know where to start. I am always so strangely caught off guard and upset when someone I know tries to (choose one): And on and on and on. When it happens, I have this déjà vu of "I can't believe this, this is absurd." You know when I was sitting in the police station outside of Boston while they investigated who was calling in the bomb threats against me, I was definitely thinking, "This isn't worth it at all. What are people going to say, 'She died for the rights of wankers'?" What kind of sick society do I live in that villainizes someone like me? I don't know my "bomber" personally, although I have met her type (yeah, it was a woman) at many feminist gatherings over the years. With comrades like these, who needs the CIA? On a personal level, it's just as bad. When someone I was in love with told me they couldn't be with "someone like you, like a whore," I had this dual reaction of being stunned that I could be hung up on someone who was that stupid, and also hurt to the core, feeling like this is what I would always find when it came to love relations. When close friends and relations who knew me when I was a little girl reject what I do as an adult, yes, of course, it's like a knife. I guess I have a superbly functioning split personality: I do the things I do without thinking very far ahead of the consequences; I get very excited and impulsive; I want to speak out and make a difference; I can't imagine bottling it up. There's an incredible beauty and freedom to it. On the other hand, I have a reservoir of bitterness, despair and betrayal that is endless. I don't share the details of it with anyone except those who I think have walked in the same shoes. The company of whores is fine company indeed. They're the only ones who you can have a good laugh about it with, who don't accuse you of exaggerating or taking it too hard. Hard? The only thing I haven't been hit with is a 2 x 4. 
- Sallie's response to Susie |
Question 1 Susie Bright Betty Dodson Nancy Friday Daphne Merkin Sallie Tisdale Question 2 Susie Bright Betty Dodson Nancy Friday Daphne Merkin Sallie Tisdale Question 3 Susie Bright Betty Dodson Nancy Friday Daphne Merkin Sallie Tisdale Question 4 Susie Bright Betty Dodson Nancy Friday Daphne Merkin Sallie Tisdale Question 5 Susie Bright Betty Dodson Nancy Friday Daphne Merkin Sallie Tisdale Question 6 Susie Bright Betty Dodson Nancy Friday Daphne Merkin Sallie Tisdale |
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