Through the Door of Life by Joy Ladin5/25/2023 ![]() ![]() Throughout, Ladin fought - and sometimes succumbed to - the impulse to dress as a woman and seek out women for close friendships. ![]() in American literature at Princeton, and built a career as a teacher and writer. ![]() The struggle continued for another four decades, even as Ladin married, earned a Ph.D. That’s the first time I remember being aware that my sense of myself was at odds with the way people saw me.” By 8, Ladin had “devoted himself to passing as a boy” who soon “called himself a pacifist so that he wouldn’t have to fight” in the schoolyard and avoided participating in team games by taking on non-athletic roles. I didn’t understand why they were running away. I taught myself to be nice rather than good, to be accommodating rather than honest, to be male rather than female.” At preschool, “I tried to play with the girls - I saw them as my peer group. Since early childhood, Ladin tried “to be what people wanted me to be. ![]() Ladin also was in constant agony over the thought of continuing to live as a man. Eleven years ago, Jay Ladin *00 was a popular professor at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women in New York, a published poet, and a father of three. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |