Critical Analysis: Stone Butch Blues - Essay Example

Teacher Critical analysis: Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinburg’s novel en d Stone Butch Blues is indeed an eye opener about the world of homosexuals. In this narrative, Feinburg ushered the reader into the dark depth secret of the gender underworld of the homosexuals where its variety are more than we think. We are brought into the bars of Tifkas in Niagara Falls where it is not just a watering hole of gender outcasts but also a place where official abuse against the homosexuals take place. Leslie Feinburg also revealed the pain that her kind endured beginning from their own homes to their workplace to the point that it already became uncomfortable too read. Having known these pain which the likes of Jess in the novel had endured, and that they are no different from the rest of us, it would now be time for society to understand and accept them as they are. Society’s judgmental attitude does not help them but in fact makes their situation worst. The most common argument that can be thrown against Leslie Feinburg’s novel Stone Butch Blues is that “why will they not just conform to society’s standards to become heterosexual?” That would make their life easier and they would not have to suffer the way they have suffered. Probably they deserve their perverted gender orientation and this pain may even help them reform themselves. If this could be done, it would have been done already. But as what have Jess narrated in the novel, she had done a lot of soul searching to be just a girl but instead found herself wearing men’s clothes that her own parents threw her into a mental institution. In a larger context, it would be easier to assert that homosexuality is a perversion and therefore they should be placed into reformatory institutions. But this does not help them. Instead, it would be better if people will just be a little more understanding, more compassionate and accept people as they are and not judge them because they look differently, or that the people they chose to love does not conform with our own standards. The theme of the novel revolves around the life of a female homosexual or a butch and in the process of narrating the experience of the character of Jess, the reader is also acquainted into the world of the homosexuals. But more than discussing homosexuality, butch, femmes, drag queens the novel tells the pain, the agony, the discrimination that a butch has undergone in the character of Jess that made her heart as cold as stone. The novel revealed the person beneath those misunderstood people who did not fit the standards of sexual orientation that society has set. And in the end, makes the reader realize to be more understanding, kinder and to be more compassionate with people whose sex and gender orientation are different from us. The read makes an interesting peek into the minds of the butch and see if they are really a perverted bunch of people or perhaps deviants who just wanted an unusual sex. So we would like to take a look on the emotional content of the reading when the protagonist was having sex. Sex is a good opportunity to know the nature of the person because her or his (Jesse) motivation, nature of arousal and sense of pleasure will be revealed and thereupon we can examine if indeed butch and femmes are perverts. The reading however revealed differently. The emotional content that includes the hesitation, excitement, arousal and reciprocity is very similar to people having sexual intimacy. The other portion of the novel may be too graphic to include in an academic paper but the line that the described Jesse’s sexual encounter with Anne with the line “Í wanted so much to be in her arms that I was willing to risk exposure and humiliation” (190) tells it all. If we are going to remove the sexual orientation of the characters involved in the sexual encounter, we could say that this feeling is as common as everyone else’s experience. And yet, because of society’s intolerance and judgmental attitude, butch and femmes are deprived for this wonderful human experience and being labelled as perverts, outcasts or even freaks. Homophobics may dismiss the experience as a pervert’s sexual excursion of trying to imitate normalcy. But if we are going to examine the context of the text, there was no pretension or perversion in its foregoing and what they are experiencing is just a normal human emotion. Except that when we know of their sex orientation our interpretation differ and we become judgmental. The title of the novel Stone Butch Blues denote the noun stone which will initially read as a noun but is one will realize that it is actually an adjective after reading the novel. It is a description of what will become of the heart of the butch after her experiences. In the case of the character of Jess, she was ostracized by her own parents, discriminated at work, abused at relationships, beaten, gang raped by a football team and even police officers. Her heart become so cold that it affected her relationships. One of which is her true love Theresa who she had hard time keeping the relationship because her heart had turn into a cold stone that is surrounded by tall walls that no one can get inside her that even her cannot emotionally get out to emotionally connect. That even when she had the opportunity to reveal her emotion when she met an accepting man named Ben, Jess can only say "Theres nothing to tell" (185). This statement may be short but encapsulated a lot of Jess experiences that made her heart stone and contrasted very well with the character of Ben but their responses in life are different. Ben’s life may have been difficult and challenging as well but it did not render him “wounded” to be become defensive about it. Just like Jess, Ben’s past was also checkered as because he too had a brush with the law when he was jailed for stealing a car where his guards were merciless. He was however open to talk about it even his personal struggle for raising a daughter with Down Syndrome. So when the response of "Theres nothing to tell" (185) is used as a response with this in the background, it subtly tells how deep Jesse pain was. Butch’s suffering is not only limited in their societal and personal lives but also extends to their professional life. Jesse had been discriminated in the workplace too that she even has to change several jobs because of the complications that her gender orientation caused. Even his safety was at risk because her foreman would sabotage the safety features of the equipment she used just to get her injured. Supposedly, gender should have nothing to do with performance and promotion at work but this is not the case of Jesse. After moving from one job to another, Jesse finally found a job fit in her New York job and was accepted as a man. Until Duffy blurted Jesse’s gender saying “Shes proved shes for the union 100 percent" (206) and that ended going for her in the factory. Jesse’s predicament about her gender orientation at work may no longer be a major issue today because nondiscriminatory laws are already in place where businesses also no longer consider gender as an issue. Companies may encourage diversity in their workplace not only in terms of ethnicity and cultural background, but also in terms of gender and sexual orientation. But these experiences however, such as what Jesse had experienced as a butch provides a vivid narrative that helped these laws to be enacted. It would have been nicer if such accommodation, tolerance and acknowledgement would be extended into the greater society at large where butch are accepted as a they are, persons who have feelings, aspiration and emotions just like everyone else. The narratives in the book was written by a butch herself and this lends credence to the content of the book. Most likely, it was derived from the experience of the author making the narrative not only personal but also real. And having known the pains and discrimination that the attitude of society has on lesbian, gays, butch, femmes, drag queens and all of its variations, it may be high time that society to become more understanding, to be kinder and more compassionate so that we will not create stone butch who would say “there’s nothing to be told” when asked about their past. We found out that they love in the same manner that we all does so probably, society may become less judgmental of them and not treat them as outcasts or perverts. And finally, gender orientation should not be a cause of discrimination nor disagreement to it give a license to assault and hurt someone just like what happened to Jesse many times. Instead we should just acknowledge that we all have aspirations and we should all work to attain it regardless of who and what we love. Read More