I’m Very Feminist In The Way I

I Am Drawn, As A Reader, To Detail-drenched Stories About Human Lives Affected As Much By The Internal As By The External, The Kind Of Fiction That Jane Smiley Nicely Describes As 'first And Foremost About How Individuals Fit, Or Don't Fit, Into Their Social Worlds.'

In America, Racism Exists But Racists Are All Gone. Racists Belong To The Past. Racists Are The Thin-lipped Mean White People In The Movies About The Civil Rights Era. Here's The Thing: The Manifestation Of Racism Has Changed But The Language Has Not. So If You Haven't Lynched Somebody Then You Can't Be Called A Racist. If You're Not A Bloodsucking Monster, Then You Can't Be Called A Racist. Somebody Has To Be Able To Say That Racists Are Not Monsters.

Lasting Love Has To Be Built On Mutual Regard And Respect. It Is About Seeing The Other Person. I Am Very Interested In Relationships And, When I Watch Couples, Sometimes I Can Sense A Blindness Has Set In. They Have Stopped Seeing Each Other. It Is Not Easy To See Another Person.

The Problem With Gender Is That It Prescribes How We Should Be, Rather Than Recognising How We Are.

Some People Ask: "why The Word Feminist? Why Not Just Say You Are A Believer In Human Rights, Or Something Like That?" Because That Would Be Dishonest. Feminism Is, Of Course, Part Of Human Rights In General-but To Choose To Use The Vague Expression Human Rights Is To Deny The Specific And Particular Problem Of Gender. It Would Be A Way Of Pretending That It Was Not Women Who Have, For Centuries, Been Excluded. It Would Be A Way Of Denying That The Problem Of Gender Targets Women.