To take a portrait that shows a person's humanity, you must have some belief in the idea of humanity--that all people are somehow related. However, most of the time, we feel we are essentially different from everyone else.  This is contempt, and it can take the form of something that happens everyday, breaks no laws, but causes incalculable pain and confusion in the lives of men and women everywhere: the feeling that members of the opposite sex have so little in common that we don't even speak the same language. However, the questions of men and women, I've learned, are more alike than different, and we are always trying to put together the same opposites, each of us in our own unique way.

Consider this young woman. She is both welcoming and guarded. She is tender and tough, as well--and the world has a structure that affirms this. The graffiti on the wall to her right has gentle curves and sharp angles. Her bright pearl earring is a delicate tear-drop sharply outlined against the dark background. Even the pussycat is sweet and sharp as it nibbles the hand cradling it. Can any man say he's not trying to make sense of these opposites in himself?