“I did not write about that kind of insecurity and anxiety between myself and my brothers, because my father was the dominant male figure as I was growing up in that home.” WritingKindHomeFatherGrowing UpGrowingFiguresBrotherAnxietyMalesMy BrotherInsecurityDominant Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“My brothers were my peers, but they were not the preeminent male figures in my emotional life.” FiguresEmotionalBrotherMalesMy BrotherPeersEmotional Life Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“People called me a tomboy. That was the term used then. I was very much someone who was comfortable in male clothing, and even later when I grew up, I was constantly wearing dungarees, wearing guy shirts.” PeopleUsedGuyTermGrewComfortableGrew UpMalesShirtsClothingsDungarees Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“Even today, I'm much more comfortable dressed in a male kind of way.” WayKindTodayComfortableMales Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“For a while they wore suits or pants suits, and pants suits are kind of a women's appropriation of male costume, work costume. For me, it wasn't Western feminism or the Western workspace. It was my growing up in a house with a bunch of boys, so that male costuming just became my mode of appropriation way before, you know, Betty Friedan came along.” KnowsWayKindHouseBoysGrowing UpGrowingFeminismWesternMalesBunchSuitsPantsCostumesAppropriationWorkspace Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“Once you stop talking about the female body empowering itself vis-à-vis male forays or invasions or male demands or the necessity to respond to husband and son to bring the issue down to a more concrete level, the body is a different manifestation physically.” DifferentBodyLevelsTalkingIssuesSonHusbandDemandFemaleMalesManifestationEmpoweringConcreteInvasionFemale Body Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“The body in defense against male appropriation expresses itself through work in writing, and the work in writing produces the book. So it's a different form of creation and generation that may be viewed as creation without male contribution as a component or challenge.” WritingMayBookDifferentBodyFormChallengesGenerationsCreationProduceMalesDefenseContributionComponentsAppropriation Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“From the world of the muse and writing, there will come, hopefully, the book. You're right, for me, that the muse is always female, and the book comes from a separate gender dimension than the concrete male world that, as you pointed out, has been surrounding me since I was an infant.” WorldWritingHas BeensBookFemaleMalesGenderHopefullyDimensionsConcreteMuseInfant Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“When you're a female poet, would you, therefore, invoke a male muse? When nuns get consecrated into their vocations, they become brides of Christ. Christ is the bridegroom. In these symbolic actions, rather than in physical actions, where a male reaches sexuality or participates in intimate exchanges, if one uses a different term - there's often a heterosexual figuring that takes place. The male poet invokes a beautiful female muse. The virginal nun consecrated invokes the male bridegroom, Christ.” IfsDifferentUseActionBeautifulTermChristPoetFemaleMalesSexualityIntimateMuseVocationSymbolicBridesNunInvokeBridegroom Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“Some Asian American male scholars have claimed this muse to be Guong Goong, God of Literature, and, simultaneously, although not coincidentally or triflingly, God of War, but I did not have such a gendered muse in mind then.” MindWarLiteratureMalesScholarMuseAsianAsian AmericanGod Of War Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
