SS: They’re both conditions where the person craves total control. But male supremacy creates trauma. Sometimes trauma can do the same thing.

AR: Where should we look to see that today?

SS: You can look at Palestine. You have the Israeli Jews, some of whom went through trauma that is multi-generational, others who are indoctrinated into that trauma that they didn’t go through. They project all of their anxiety and pain from a trauma that was inflicted by Europe onto the Palestinians, who didn’t do anything to them. And when the Palestinians resist this, they become labeled as dangerous. I saw this during the AIDS crisis, too. People with AIDS who were in profound need of protection were then theorized as dangerous when they were actually endangered.

AR: I noticed that your nonfiction work, even when published by a university press, doesn’t really feel traditionally academic. What’s that about?

SS: I hate the one, long, slow idea theory. The writers that I like have a million ideas — half of them are crazy — you just read it dynamically; you’re engaged. So what if half of it is wrong? People don’t always have to be right. I like to throw out a lot of ideas and see what happens.