However, it doesn't change the damage done to those of us who simply didn't fit through that 'eye of the needle'. Anthropologically speaking, it of course makes sense as the pendulum swung from 'male/female gender roles', the community was seeking something new and unique and free. It was during the seemingly endless 'androgynous imperative' time frame - so oppressive to those of us who, after rowing to the lesbian shore thinking, 'Finally! My own people!' only found rejection if we didn't fit the tight, narrow description of the androgynous imperative. I found this book at a used book store about 17 years ago. Given how many lesbians (whether they admit it or not) read lesbian romance novels, I don't think I'm alone. I read it for the emotional impact because when it comes to erotica I need the emotional tie. Some may read for the historical perspective and others may miss the explicit-anything-for-shock-value gender games and power plays that are required it seems in all of the 'best of' lesbian erotica out there now. Instead of cold and sterile sex acts between people portrayed as obsessed with looks and their own image, this anthology overflows with the fluid nature of human sexuality and genuine human warmth. The women in it are real and their feelings have true context.

After a recent submersion into what is passing for lesbian erotica these days - and feeling as if I just wasn't perverse enough to be a 'real' lesbian - I revisited this classic.Īfter finishing it, and being once again intrigued, informed, aroused and delighted, I realized what it has that so many more recent anthologies lack: it has human contact based on emotion.

The Persistent Desire by Joan Nestle