The Ballad of Sexual Dependency

"In spite of it all, people have a need to couple. Even when they're being destroyed, they're still coupling. The Ballad of Sexual Dependency starts and ends with this premise, but in between there is the question as to why there is this need and why it is so difficult.

I think that men and women are irrevocably strangers to each other, irrevocably unsuited. It is almost as if men and women are from different planets, they have such difficulty understanding each other. I find men, or the male emotional system, very difficult to understand. Men seem to be afraid of women. Emotionally, I am much suited to be with a woman, but then there is this sexual desire for men. I realize my emotional and sexual need for the opposite sex. The slide show touches gay relationships too; I am dealing with the difficulty of coupling, and part of that is the difficulty in maintaining intimacy. "

- Nan Goldin, Interview, 1986