Lillian Faderman was born in New York in 1940 to a single, working mother. While Ms. Faderman took a great part in raising herself while growing up, her caretakers were primarily her mother and her aunt, Rae. Both her mother and her aunt were Latvian-Jewish immigrants who arrived in the United States in the early 1900s. Ms. Faderman spent the first decades of her life struggling deeply with her sexual orientation and her desire to move ahead in a discriminatory world. Through sheer determination and ambition, Ms. Faderman fights back against the judgements placed on women, lesbians, and the working class. Her experiences allow readers a lens through which to identify some of the struggles faced, not only just for a closeted lesbian in the mid-20th century, but also for a working-class female. Second class citizen in all aspects. THESIS.
Early on, Faderman relocated to Los Angeles with her mother and her aunt. As a small child living with her two guardians, Faderman is able to witness the struggle brought around by…show more content… Though, due to her social status she eventually had to begin working at the acting studio to be able to pay for the lessons she received (50). After several years, Ms. Faderman fell into pin-up and figure modeling (114) and greatly enjoyed the benefits of the pay, though the lifestyle held its own series of dangers. It was at this time that she found herself caught in a pattern that would continue to remerge several times over the course of her life. In order to afford tuition in college and rent while living in San Francisco, Faderman takes on the jobs of modeling and working as a burlesque performer. Though she finds the jobs she takes in the adult industry regretful and shameful, the promise of easy money becomes something that she returns to time after time, into her adult years, to avoid financial
