Butterfly Effect - ressourcesfeministes

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37 wolves. Olga Broumas in her poem, “Little Red Riding Hood” writes that she is
waiting, across this improbable forest / peopled with wolves and our lost,
flower-gathering /sisters they feed on. Olga Broumas. 1977. Beginning with O.
p. 68. The sisters are at once flower-gatherers and wolves; at once sexually
expressive and the subject of sexual expression.
Another improbable forest appears in Suniti Namjoshi’s fable “Wolf”, which
tells the tale of a friendship which develops between a virgin and a wolf. The
hunters are immediately suspicious that the virgin is using the wolf to guard her
virginity (although Namjoshi explains that they just happened to get on and
became friends). Knowing best, although they were never able to slay the wolf or
find the wolf’s friend, the virgin, the hunters: “decided the forest had swallowed
them, so they put up a sign on the edge of their town in large red letters warning
the unwary that there were wolves around.” Suniti Namjoshi. 1993. St Suniti and
the Dragon, p. 86.
That this is equivalent to putting up a neon sign with the message “Beware:
Lesbians in this Area” is confirmed by the story which follows “Wolf”.
“Subsequent History” has the wolf and the virgin walking on through several
villages, being rejected or accepted only on impossible conditions (pulling out
the wolf’s claws and teeth – read: her frightening sexuality; the virgin marrying
someone – read: taming and occupying her sexuality). And so they walk on:
“until, at last, they entered a realm that is not as yet familiar to us.” Namjoshi, St
Suniti and the Dragon. p. 87.
38 Her. See H.D. 1981. HERmione. The HER of this novel is Frances Gregg
39 goat. Latin, caper, capri. Capri: The island of goats. A favourite hangout for
lesbians of the 1920s. Also the brand name of a sportscar, driven by the lesbian
with a penchant for the wind in her hair.
40 write slant. Writing slant was what Emily Dickinson advised in Poem 1129 which
begins “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant–“. See The Complete Poems of Emily
Dickinson. (1960).
41 why is the measure of love lost. Jeanette Winterson. 1993. Written on the Body. p. 1.