Bernard Coopers Burls - Literature review Example

Bernard Cooper’s “Burl’s” is an essay discussing a boy growing up in 1950s America and coming to terms with his homosexuality. He talks about the ambiguity of true gender lines- that those commonly displayed are merely the product of societal expectations. Two transvestites in a parking lot are the bringers of his realization that these lines are not as clear as he had believed, simply in seeing “These women had Adam’s apples” (155). Cooper’s notions of male and female dissolve. He had only encountered the separate gender lines in the worlds of his mother and father’s closets. There was his father’s uninviting cave of ties, mothballs and poor lighting, or his mother’s haven of perfumes, high heels and makeup. The men in the parking lot existed somewhere in between these worlds. Cooper makes one ask are there only two gender worlds? What world do homosexuals, transvestites, and people who were born both male and female live in? Should we even have gender lines? Cooper allows the reader to ask themselves these questions, though there are no easy answers. During the same period in the author’s life, he was forced into taking a class at a local gym as an attempt by his parents to make him less soft. The instructor in the gymnasium, a supposed mentor of masculinity, is “wrinkled and anemic”. Cooper shows, through such examples, gender hides behind a weak façade. The instructor and the man in the locker room are the image of weakness and sickness, one apparently malnourished and aging, the other resembling a fish. These men are hardly the image of manly vigor. Cooper states that, upon waking in the morning, “I’d blink against the early light and greet each incarnation as a male with mild surprise. Cooper thought “My sex, in other words, didn’t seem to be an absolute fact so much as a pleasant, recurring accident” (156). Though there may be a level of natural tendency toward certain behaviors among the sexes, much is based upon the expectations placed on individuals by society, and eventually, by themselves. More ambiguous behavior is stifled by a desire to reach an ideal that ignores the possibility of more options. It is so closely ingrained in our way of life, so constantly praised both overtly and subconsciously, that it seems inescapable. This text will be tied to James Baldwin's "The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American." The selection, "The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American", focuses on Baldwin and his experiences in Paris with fellow expatriates. After 1948, Baldwin made his home in the south of France, where he followed a tradition of many American artists and writers, who found France to be a more hospitable place for artists and writers than America. This was particularly the case in the post World War II era, when anti-Communist fears of the Cold War made innovative writing and socialist ideas dangerous. Returning to the U.S. for lecturing or teaching engagements, Baldwin's writing addressed themes of racism and homosexuality, which made him the subject of a great deal of controversy, even within the black community. Baldwin, who was both black and homosexual, found himself cut off from the dominant culture for being both black and openly gay. In the selection included here, what characterizes Baldwin's narrative is a sense of "thrownness". "Thrownness" was first developed as a concept by the existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger. It is "the condition of being taken more or less by surprise, hurled into an unexpected and unpredictable situation. In one sense, all human beings are thrown: they all have to find their way through the world without much in the way of practice." In Baldwin's world, there is an awareness of being thrown into a world of which one has no knowledge - of what came before birth, or what will happen after death. The thrownness contains a feeling of randomness, and thus other individuals are perceived as part of that great out grouped mass - a condition which makes one focus on the here and now; one's existential condition. Baldwin writes to correct the prevailing view that people are rigid and cannot transcend their view of the world, and that order, once established, cannot or should not, be re-ordered. Baldwin writing helps understand Cooper’s essay. Both men feel they do not belong in societal norms. Both men embrace their sexuality as a given. They accept that they were born with these feelings, although society made them feel ashamed about their sexuality. Even on important issues, such as racism, because Baldwin is homosexual, the mainstream black society dismisses his ideas. Society labeled both men as homosexual, when that was only a part of what they were. Both men were also writers, thoughtful, and sons. These traits are overshadowed by the one aspect of their lives society did not accept.  Though Cooper believes the realities that substantiate gender roles are weak, he certainly cannot deny that their power is strong. Falseness does not prevent them from permeating most aspects of American life. They are supported by a belief in what is normal held by an entire society. The sheer number of supporters would convince many that they are truth. Both of the men above are confused about gender lines. In a society that gives mixed messages, that should not be a big shock. Men are supposed to be masculine and dress a certain way, but women are freer in their dress. Society does not condemn a woman for wearing masculine clothes, but a man wearing a dress would be laughed at. Cooper described his father’s closet as an “uninviting cave of ties, mothballs and poor lighting”, but his mother’s closet is a “haven of perfumes, high heels and makeup.” His mother’s closet could be a haven because "society is far less rigid about female clothing standards, women can wear masculine-looking clothes or actual male attire without attracting much attention" (Brown and Rounsley, 14). Society treats women as inferior just like homosexuals, so it really does not matter what gender role they play. A woman is a mere woman; a homosexual a mere homosexual in societal terms. This could be why even though homosexual both men identified with women better, not just because all homosexuals are feminine. It could be because society is ambiguous about what roles women and homosexuals play.        The focus may be on gender, but this is not the scope of Cooper’s argument. The idea of shame and feelings social deviance seemed to be more prominent. Although he may doubt societal truths, he still has an innate guilt over not adhering to them. A man in a car passes by him several times at a bus stop, filling him with desire for a pet storeowner. His reaction to discovering this forbidden sexual desire is to loudly exclaim his disgust with the man that longed for him. He says “I was so determined to deflect suspicion away from myself, and to justify my missing the class, that I portrayed the man as a grizzled pervert who drunkenly veered from lane to lane as he followed me halfway home.”   By denouncing this embodiment of an aspect of himself, he manages to separate himself from it. In claiming that it is bad, he removes himself from it and purifies himself in his mother’s eyes. Cooper’s mother, after his experience at the bus stop, seems almost surprisingly willing to keep him at home in the kitchen with her. While this may be out of fear for his safety, it is more likely that he has soothed her worries for him enough that she can ignore the attributes that caused her concern. Denial of his desires gives his mother sufficient reason to ignore his less traditionally masculine characteristics. Guilt and shame are not new concepts in the homosexuals. Cooper was normal for experiencing what society deemed as wrong. Harris states “the issue of shame which is often present in the formation of a sexual identity that is experienced as homosexual” (77). Harris also points out “Homosexual children growing up in a society where gender role behaviors are rigidly defined” (78). These rigidly defined gender role behaviors instill guilt, shame, and feelings of social deviance. Cooper and Baldwin both had these natural feelings because they could not live up to society’s expectations of what men should be. Cooper and Baldwin were homosexual, they could not be anything else, in spite of societal expectations. References Brown, Mildred L. and Rounsley Chloe Ann. True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism--For Families, Friends, Coworkers, and Helping Professionals. Canada: John Wiley & Sons Canada, 2003. Harris, Adrienne. Disorienting Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Reappraisals of Sexual Identities. New York: Routledge, 1995. Read More