Standing In the Shadow of Male Ambivalence On My Sensuality

From Anne’s original journal:

Standing In the Shadow of Male Ambivalence On My Sensuality AOC Sensually Yours

“You are fabulous, sexy, beautiful, larger-than-life.” 

His four positives didn’t whitewash what was coming. I wasn’t fooled for a moment. I was reading his mind, a talent that’s served me well in corporate America.

When I was 21, my boyfriend gave me three gifts for my birthday. One of them was the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Reading the book told me everything I needed to know about my futile, romantic future with this man.

Hess portrayed women as the ultimate temptress, eroding man’s spiritual gains by appealing to his desires. That’s a bad rap sheet for any woman to bear.

Now, here at the bar in the Soho Grand, I was having a second Siddhartha life moment.