"As if it came from an atavism deeper that fear, I used to add "brother" silently to boys' names. It hexed the boys, who would or would not ask me to dance, and made them less scary and as familiar and deserving of benevolence as girls.
But, of course, I hexed myself also- no dates. I should have stood up, both arms waving, and shouted out across libraries, " hey, you! Love me back." I had no idea, though, how to make attraction selective, how to control its direction and magnitude. If I made myself American-pretty so that the five or six Chinese boys in the class fell in love with me, everyone else- the Caucasian, Negro, and Japanese boys - would too. Sisterliness, dignified and honorable, made much more sense. "
Maxine Hong Kingston- The Woman Warrior
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