Sappho was a Right-on Woman: A Liberated View of Lesbianism"This is the first account written by women--by Lesbians--about themselves and their struggle. For Lesbians, as for most women today, the present is experience as a collision between the past and future. The first part of Sappho Was a Right-on Woman, "What It Was Like," deals with the past: the guilt, the shame, the duplicity, that are part of living in a society that condemns Lesbians--when it cannot ignore them. Temporary sanctuaries (bars, gay ghettos, vacation spots) and "bizarre" behavior are part of the past for some Lesbians, and still very much part of the present for many. The second part of the book, "Living the Future," reflects profound change taking place within society, the women's movement, and most important, within Lesbians themselves--change that make it possible for them to stop making unnecessary apologies and start function as whole people. Defying the present is still not easy, the authors say, but it is infinitely preferable to the self-degradation society has gone to such pains to teach the Lesbian. Sappho Was a Right-on Woman speaks clearly, honestly, openly, to those women and men, homosexual and heterosexual, oppressing and oppressed, who are still living in the past. It invites them to "come out"--Out of their closets, out of their unexamined prejudice and unresolved confusion--and live into the future with "an appreciation of both the differences and the common humanity" necessary for constructive change"--Publisher's description on book jacket. |
Contents
Mirage | 107 |
Lesbianism and Feminism | 135 |
The Realization of Innocence | 159 |
Copyright | |
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acceptance asked attitudes become behavior bisexual bizarre Blacks butch butch and femme CALIFORNIA/SANTA CRUZ called consciousness consciousness-raising CRUZ The University culture daughter Daughters of Bilitis denied emotional experience fear feel felt female feminine Feminism Feminists femme forced freedom friends gay activists gay bar Gay Liberation Gay Liberation Front gay women girl goals guilt hetero heterosexual hiding homo homosexual human identity individual Kate Millett kind Lavender Menace Lesbian activists Lesbian issue Lesbian relationship life-style live lover marriage Mary Jane masculine means ment mental health monogamy mother never oppression organization parents person political political Lesbian problems psychic psychological recognized repression Rita Mae Brown schizophrenia seems sex roles sexual preference social society society's stereotype straight women talk things Ti-Grace Atkinson tion University Library UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA/SANTA values woman Women's Liberation women's movement York N.O.W.