I was waiting for something to turn up to write about.. And it did. January 16 was the birthday of writer Susan Sontag. The reason I know this is that I read it on Facebook in a post from Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac. In addition to reporting that Ms. Sontag read at three, graduated from high school at fifteen, and earned Master's degrees in English and philosophy from Harvard, the post talks about her eight-year marriage. What it did not talk about was Ms. Sontag's longterm relationship with photographer Annie Liebowitz, begun in 1989 and ending with Ms. Sontag's death in 2004.
Why was only the shorter relationship mentioned? Was it because it was a Lesbian relationship? Was this omission due to prudishness (After all, even if they couldn't get married, they could have had a commitment ceremony.) or heterosexism? If Ms. Sontag's final relationship had been with a man, would he have been mentioned?
Am I becoming one of those PC Police people who enjoy being offended and judge the broadmindedness of others by how often they are offended?
Do I need to get a life? (In my defense, I have been recuperating from a hip replacement and haven't been getting out much.)
I felt better when I read comments from other readers who had the same reaction Then I was annoyed at myself because I needed to be validated. Then I was annoyed because I was beating myself up for needing to be validated. (If you have trouble following this, you are better adjusted than I am.)
I wondered what Ms. Sontag and Ms. Liebowitz would think about the post and people's reactions. Maybe (OK, probably) they would ignore it and go on with their lives. Or maybe Ms. Sontag might have written about it and more importantly, people's reactions to it.
Well, it's something to think about. So Happy Belated Birthday, Ms. Sontag, and Happy Unbirthday, Ms. Liebowitz.
(PS I know this is late, but insightful, witty writing take time.)
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