because the woman's place is wherever the woman is...


Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Vita Sackville-West

Being bi-sexual hardly makes you an in-your-face woman, in and of itself. But Vita Sackville-West did far more than just engage in an open marriage and have multiple sexual partners, most of whom were women. After all, one could do all that in secret. But her son Nigel wrote of her: "She fought for the right to love, men and women, rejecting the conventions that marriage demands exclusive love, and that women should love only men, and men only women. For this she was prepared to give up everything." And Sackville-West not only did this publicly (sometimes dressing as a man), but wrote about it.

In fact, she not only wrote about it herself, but one of her more famous lovers, Virginia Woolf -- also an in-your-face woman -- wrote a novel, Orlando, wherein the main character was powerfully inspired by Sackville-West. In it, Orlando keeps popping up over a five century period, switching genders back and forth, not by her own control. If that doesn't make your crazy, it will certainly make you an in-your-face woman...er...man...uh...woman.

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