Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

This book was very interesting to read. Reading this book showed me how little the POC experience is represented in the curriculum. This is part of what inspired me to pursue Race and Resistance Studies at SFSU in my later educational career.Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae BrownThis book is an autobiographical narrative. We go with the author through her own coming of age story. She travels, has misadventures and learns a lot about herself and the community. She ends up in school for film. We get an inside look at the challenges facing black film makers, lesbian film makers, and woman film makers.

There are many interesting parallels to people like Dorothy Arzner (who was active at the same time) struggling even as a white lesbian to produce films in a fiercely racist, sexist, and homophobic culture.

In the text, the character compares herself to Kenneth Anger, a gay white man who made films even earlier and had some limited success at the time but was shut out of the mainstream.

This is a great book which I will certainly recommend to people.