Book Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- Introduction -- Gyn/Affection and Hetero-relations -- Gyn/Affection and Lesbianism -- The Title of This Book -- The Method of This Book: Genealogy -- The Political Is Personal -- I Origins of Female Friendship: In the Beginning Was Woman -- According to Man -- According to Woman: The Origins of Gyn/Affection -- The Meaning and Importance of the Search for Origins -- Meta-History and Michel Foucault -- Clues from the Disciplines of Hetero-Relations: Psychologisms -- Clues from the Disciplines of Hetero-Relations: Biologisms -- "The Call of the Wild" -- A Genealogy of "Loose Women": The Prostitute and the Lesbian -- II Varieties of Female Friendship: The Nun As Loose Woman -- The Rule of Companions -- Spiritual Friendship -- Particular Friendship -- Suppression of Loose Religious Women -- Internal Suppression: Canonical Restraints and the Rule of Enclosure -- External Suppression: The Dissolution and the Protestant Reformation -- Conclusion -- III More Loose Women: The Chinese Marriage Resisters -- Kwangtung: The Locus of Marriage Resistance -- Sworn Sisters and the "Chai t'ang" -- The Pu lo-chia and the Tzu-shu nü -- Lesbian Practices -- Migration from China -- The Political Worth and Weight of the Marriage Resistance Movement -- Resisters and Nuns -- IV Obstacles to Female Friendship -- Dissociation from the World -- Therapism: The Tyranny of Feelings -- Relationism: The Tyranny of Relations -- Perversions of "The Personal Is Political" -- Assimilation to the World -- Sexual Liberation -- The Tyranny of Tolerance -- The Assimilation of Silence -- Victimization in the World -- Mothers and Daughters -- The Politics of Guilt and Guilt-Tripping -- Women's Alienation from Personal and Political Power -- Woman as the Ultimate Victimizer of Women -- Conclusion.

V A Vision of Female Friendship: Two Sights-seeing -- Dual Vision: Its Forms -- Materialism and Idealism -- Optimism and Pessimism -- Theory and Practice: Thought and Action -- The Conditions of Female Friendship -- Thoughtfulness -- Passion -- Worldliness -- Happiness -- Taking Sight Seriously -- Notes -- Introduction -- I. The Origins of Female Friendship: In The Beginning Was Woman -- II. Varieties of Female Friendship: The Nun as Loose Woman -- III. More Loose Women: The Chinese Marriage Resisters -- IV. Obstacles to Female Friendship -- V. A Vision of Female Friendship: Two Sights-Seeing -- Index.