Love & Passion Quote by Rita Mae Brown

A neat rhetorical trap is set here: Brown starts with a definition rooted in affection and allegiance, then swivels to expose how language gets colonized by the male gaze. “Women who love women” frames lesbian identity as relational and emotional, a whole life rather than a single act. The second sentence is the sting. By claiming men “can only think of women in sexual terms,” Brown isn’t offering a polite sociological observation; she’s indicting a culture that reduces women’s inner lives to consumable imagery. The point isn’t that men literally lack other thoughts, but that patriarchal habits of interpretation are so strong they overwrite women’s self-description.

The subtext is about who gets to name reality. “Define” is doing heavy work: it implies authority, gatekeeping, and the way mainstream discourse turns marginalized identities into categories built for outsiders. Brown’s move also highlights a double standard. Heterosexuality is typically allowed to imply romance, partnership, and family; lesbianism is often forced into the narrowest, most voyeuristic reading, conveniently compatible with porn tropes and dismissive jokes.

Context matters: Brown emerged alongside second-wave feminism and lesbian feminist politics that fought to separate lesbian identity from both psychiatric stigma and straight male fantasy. Her wit is blunt because the target is blunt: a culture that recognizes women’s desire primarily when it can be packaged as spectacle. The line works because it refuses to debate on the oppressor’s terms; it redraws the definition at the source, then shows you exactly who benefits from shrinking it back down.