My mother loved to repeat to everyone, "It is a wise child that knows its own father." She took pride in an extreme feminist stance that denigrated the status of men to that of "sperm donors" -- and not good for much else. She would tell me how mysterious and powerful women are, and how men fear them. But, of course, she could use this against me in two ways. She knew she created a child with my father yet often suggested that I may have been switched at birth in the hospital -- a changeling. More frequently she reminded me, "You received all your genetic garbage from your father's side of the family. You are your father's daughter." Either way, my mother was then in no way culpable for my multiple "defects," physical or mental. I take comfort now, realizing she can not take credit for my talents and all other things that are worthwhile and good in me. With this realization I find she has lost some of her power over me. I prefer being "Daddy's girl, defective girl."