I think kids in every minority need to see people like themselves in books; that's an acknowledgment of their existence on this planet and in this society.
Nancy GardenRead
When I was growing up as a young lesbian in the '50s, I looked in vain for books about my people. I did find some paperbacks with lurid covers in the local bus station, but they ended with the gay character's committing suicide, dying in a car crash, being sent to a mental hospital, or 'turning' heterosexual.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the struggle for visibility and representation faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in literature.
Nancy Garden's quote highlights the lack of positive representation of lesbian characters in literature during the 1950s. She expresses her disappointment in only finding stories that ended in tragedy for gay characters, illustrating the societal stigma and dangerous narratives that were prevalent at the time, which contributed to the marginalization of LGBTQ+ identities and experiences in literature and society.
In practice
In a talk on LGBTQ+ representation in media, this quote can emphasize the importance of diverse narratives.
I think kids in every minority need to see people like themselves in books; that's an acknowledgment of their existence on this planet and in this society.
Racism has a very quick expiration date when exposed to actual contact with people.
I felt the first man I slept with must be intelligent, so I could respect him.
I don't think most men do hate women at all - I think most men are trying their best and facing a culturation into masculine behaviour that forces them to deny their own humanity and to exaggerate distance from the world of women.
Then may I tell you that the very next words I read were these – ‘Chloe liked Olivia…’ Do not start. Do not blush. Let us admit in the privacy of our own society that these things sometimes happen. Sometimes women do like women.
A man long accustomed to admire his wife in general, seldom pauses to admire her in a particular gown or attitude, unless his attention is directed to her by the appreciative gaze of another man.
We talk about feelings. And about sex. And about bodies, and their gratification, violation, repair, decoration, deferred, maybe permanently deferred, mortality. Feelings are a bodily thing, and respecting them is called, is, kindness.
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