Lesbianism

Audre is a lesbian and later in life becomes a major lesbian contributor to the feminist movement. Her lesbianism is a major theme of the book because all her lovers are women and her concerns in the book are about the nature of her love for femininity and women generally. Her lesbianism appears to derive from her admiration for and draw towards the feminine strength of her mother. Audre has a continuous drive to find feminine power in other women, not just through friendship, but through romantic and erotic relationships. She often describes her arousal at the possibility of sex with another woman and of the mixing of their feminine elements. She even begins the book by saying that she desires both to enter women and to be entered by them, "to leave and to be left" and "to be hot and hard and soft all at the...