More questions on Onegin

[Alina Israeli]

>3 April 2006
>
>Dear Svetlana,
>
>Why would homosexuality be something a country maiden NOT be aware of?
>Why assume the woman is not bright enough to know or imagine certain
>things (a sexist assumption)?


What a woman (or a man) knows should be studied and analized and not 
assumed one way or another, particularly when we are dealing with a 
taboo subject.

In fiction (David Lodge) we find examples of young Catholic women who 
thought they would get pregnant from an embrace, and in some popular 
sexual psychology of the late 20th century we find a story of a woman 
who thought herself infertile and adopted children and upon her death 
was discovered to be a virgin. Needless to say she had been married 
for over 30 years and had sex with her husband (but apparently not 
the kind that makes a woman pregnant).

And if Tatyana were to know about homosexuality (or even sexuality) 
as an unmarried girl, where would this knowledge come from? Were 
there any books on her shelf that would enlighten her, or can we 
expect her nanny teach her, or maybe her mother?

-- 
__________
Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Mass. Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20016

phone:	(202) 885-2387
fax:	(202) 885-1076

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