Regarding your question about sexuality: It is hard to be a woman who is sexually expressive or empowered because it is, again, going against the norm.

Historically a woman was taught to be modest. She was the leg-crossing, no-saying figure who was the main obstacle to a sex act. When she finally did get sexual (after incessant pressure), it was always with a man, never a woman, and she was to react and respond, never instigate. It took guts to be an openly desiring female because being a sexual girl meant being a bad girl. She'd be discounted, ostracized. No longer "pure", she'd fall on the other end of the spectrum labeled "slut."

These traditional norms are still present in some women's lives. What is tricky today is that the norms have morphed into a confusing mixed message. In today's multimedia-based culture the so-called slut is actually promoted (though in real life she is still punished). She is the scantily clad, just-do-me-looking, hypersexualized young woman revered in ads, movies, magazines, and music videos. No longer the obstacle to sex, today's girls and women are supposed to personify it; according to the media images, they are to look attractive, lusty, and be sexually available at all times for the men of the world. Women have learned to accept being on constant ogle-display. Worse, what is considered attractive is defined for them by the fashion and media industries. A woman's value depends on whether her looks meet the industries' definition — and how much male attention she gets.

From women being told they are *not* supposed to be sexual, to being told they *should* be more sexual, our sexuality has been played like a Ping-Pong ball in a game of table tennis. So the truth is worth repeating (and that is what I hope my book does): A woman's body is her body, and it shouldn't be pushed around by anybody else. We all need to be in command of our own selves. We all need to make our own sexual decisions.

So today, a woman who is empowered sexually is a woman who is making her own decisions, not doing what others tell her to do. Today, empowered women are choosing for themselves. They say yes when they want to say yes, no when they want to say no, and they do the asking and initiating when it suits them. That is a sexually empowered female at the start of the new millennium.

- Personally, what gives you the strength to keep speaking the truth as a writer? As a female? Against so many odds--so many competing (indeed, aggressively opposed) voices?

There has been no negative response to my book or the open mikes, so actually it has not been hard at all to speak "the truth" — which, of course, is really just *my* truth. Though a big part of what "my" truth has been with regards to my work is really giving other women a place to speak their own truths. My book and open mike movement are about giving women and girls a place and a format for sharing stories about their own lives. Sharing personal experiences aloud is the foundation for any political movement. It is also the fuel needed for the long term *continuation* of any political movement, including the movement for women's liberation, which we all know started a long time ago with the fight for the right to vote and continues to this day with the fight for the right to not be beaten at home, sexually harassed in the street, raped etc. It also includes our right to keep abortion safe and legal, get equal pay for our work and equal attention in the bedroom.