"My Monster"

Jeanette Winterson, British writer, was adopted early in her life by a fundamentalist family. It turns out that they were not the most loving (except when it came to Jesus). They were the type that stopped her from reading books, except for the bible. The adoptive mother, Mrs Winterson, seems to have been particularly obsessed with the apocalypse, and averse to sex.

When Jeanette discovered that she was a lesbian in her teen years, the reaction was, predictably, negative. When she told her adoptive mother that her sexuality made her happy, she asked her, "why be happy when you could be normal"?

But as bad as Mrs W was, Jeanette won't stand her late adoptive mother being criticized. Of her, she says, "she was a monster, but she was my monster".

This seems to be a rather common reaction among victims of family abuse.