Free Empathy by Sarah Schulman Page B

feet, you sit on the edge of their beds and they can see you. You can talk to them and touch them at the same time without them having to move. You can take one long last look.”
    Silence.
    â€œHere, Doc, I brought in some show-and-tell.”
    She handed him a folded-up newspaper clipping with circles drawn around different items. She held her breath, waiting to see his reaction, Doc read out loud.
    WOMEN SEEKING WOMEN
    Â 
    MWF, 40, wants to fulfill fantasy for the first-time encounter with gay or Bi female. Must be discreet, Spfld. Area 4052.
    Â 
    MWBiF would like to meet M/SBiWF 18-30 for fun and friendship. Hart Area 10437.
    Â 
    MbiWF, 31, feminine, looking for feminine M/SbiWF for discreet intimate friendship. FF Area 30351.

    MEN SEEKING MEN
    Â 
    Bi/dude great videos, discreet fun. No gays! Macho Spanish dudes, straight-bi and closet “men in uniform” welcome. Absolute discretion. Mark Box 554, Newton CT.06470.
    Â 
    BiWM 29 6’2” very attractive muscular discreet seeking a muscular handsome straight-acting G/BiWM 22-32. NH area 50410.
    â€œWhat is this?” Doc asked.
    â€œIt’s an oppression document,” Anna said. “File it under O.”
    â€œNot only are they all discreet ,” Doc said, looking it over, “but being white seems to take on paramount importance.”
    â€œI hope I live to see the day,” Anna said, rearranging the cushions on the couch, “when the words straight-acting have naturally disappeared from the English language. And Doc, don’t you dare tell me that all people are basically bisexual . I don’t think I could take it.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œWell, you know,” she said, “when I was a teenager the rule was that everyone was really heterosexual and since I wasn’t, I became really deviant. Now the rhetoric seems to be going in the direction of everyone being really bisexual and I’m not that either. So I’m still a deviant. Blame it on Freud, right?”
    â€œFreud is only an idea. It can work for you or against you.”
    That was a good sign , Anna thought, deciding to take the next step.
    â€œDo you do dream analysis, Doc? Is that where all this is leading? I mean I did have a strange one last night. It was a strange night.”
    Anna felt somewhat dowdy, not fitting properly into her dress.
    â€œIt was a strange night. It was gray and very cold. I was thinking about all the women I’ve ever loved. I was thinking about each one of
them individually. The opera singer who couldn’t stop coming and the waitress who didn’t know how. I was thinking about the women who had to fight for their orgasms and the ones who got theirs like they got their lunch. I was lonely because of the weather. I was reviewing all the ways that my life has been propelled by strategizing for access to the female body.”
    â€œDid it feel good?”
    â€œWell, Doc, each encounter left me with some erotic memory. You know, a flash of something she said. Some small gesture or the way she moved her body. Something that really pleased me. Then I fell asleep and had this dream.”
    â€œWhat did you dream?”
    â€œI dreamt that I took William Burrough’s penis and tied it up with piano wire. I hung him like a Chagall painting. He’s an old feeble man so he swayed in the wind.”
    â€œThen what?”
    â€œThen, in my dream, I took a rapist’s penis and grafted it onto his forehead. He had to walk around all day with his own dick in his face. I called it Surrealism .”
    â€œHow does the rapist fit into it?”
    â€œWell, Doc,” Anna answered, like she’d already thought this one through, “a lot of my lovers have been raped. Easily half. Some were raped twice. One was gang raped twice. And, well…Ibegan to wonder, recently, if I might have had something to do with it.”
    â€œWith them being raped?”
    â€œNo, with them coming to