Neo, I think the point lies in the great risk to her from her peer group, which implicitly validates my conjecture re the prevalence of ding-a-linghood in the relevant demographic.

As an artist and a christian and a conservative, I can speak first hand of ostracism and self-ostracism. The pulling away is on a gut level at first; then, you begin to understand it and must decide whether or not to continue to be separate.

Others, for the sake of potential success, join in the debauchery: so slowly but eagerly you build your network, making connection with the gatekeepers of your profession, agreeing with them, joining, of “liking” their advocacy groups; until, at some point; you let go the last moorline and cast off into the abyss.

For some it is the normalcy of the middle-class life that is the mask – oh, those up and coming psychologists, doctors and lawyers love to the edgy, flighty, artsy girls! – then, when in position and able to launch, the once “normal” wife launches her career on the back of her seduced/blind husband; she builds were connection just so with the gatekeepers – in this area gays & lesbians – and her art – inferior – becomes oohed and aahed over. the concerns of the husband becomes secondary; and then old baggage to be cast away; or kept in the attic, as it were, if she is only able to do her work supported by his pension ( I am watching a female artist who manipulated her husband, an far superior artist, into a mere shadow of himself; while she has her studio and “art career,” she lives off his pension).

I watch. I understand. But I cannot walk that path.

Perfect metaphor, Artfldgr.