As On Our Backs developed and I began to travel and meet people in other cities...I started to realize that this ideology that people call "politically correct" was maintained by so few people...I mean, if a person isn't being sexually open, it's not because some important lesbian is telling them they can't -- it's because of very simple, powerful inhibitions and taboos you've had since you were a child. Which is a much more honest depiction of why people aren't more out there about their erotic identities. It's isn't because of peer pressure within a politically dogmatic milieu; it's because e your mama told you not to do it -- and that's the bottom line.

I think about all the silly things I didn't do when I was first sexual [on the other hand] because I thought they weren't "politically correct."I remember not fucking my girlfriend because that would be "patriarchal" and "objectifying" her.

I remember the first time a man ever spanked me in sex -- I had an orgasm and I remember thinking, "Ohmigod!" As soon as he had stopped, I pulled myself up in a very pristine way and said, "Don't you ever, ever do that again!" and made this little note to myself that "he was probably mentally ill." This was after my orgasm! Now I'm so embarrassed -- I wish I could write him a "Thank You" letter now (but who knows where he is?):"I'm sorry -- I was so wrong, you were so right!

And I was objecting to that because of peer group pressure. When I really think about my most serious resistance to sexual exploration, it isn't because of the things I learned in the [radical/activist experiences of her] '70s from my political idols, it's because of my Catholic Girl's School education, and the kind of little girl I was brought up to be.