Jessica Stein is queer under the definition of queer as a rejection of identities, sexual and other, that are deemed traditional – i.e. not homosexual, heterosexual or bi, but some convoluted mixture of them all. Vague in both definition and recognition, however, it is this indeterminacy that creates a non-specific overlay permitting a wide range of possibilities. Being queer is rebuffing what can be labeled, but being what you are and succumbing to what you desire. Kissing Jessica Stein tells the story of a conservative single woman in New York City, frustrated by her failure with men, until she meets Helen, a sexually overt woman. As the two explore the physical and emotion benefits to sexual fluidity, Jessica struggles to define herself …show more content…
The queer theory considers sexuality as always being modified, passing boundaries and normality. In Kissing Jessica Stein, Jessica finds herself seduced by temptation and wonders if she could find all those things she looks for in a partner: a friend, a protector, someone to be there when she’s sick, in a woman. Paula C. Rust suggests that the most common change among peoples, is their own position on the sexual landscape. Socially constructed by dialogue, interaction, our environment creates a universal stigma of sexual normality. In Kissing Jessica Stein there is a scene in which Helen and Jessica sit at a bar when approached by two men to whom they prose the question: Can a woman who’s only been with men be attracted to women? Directly relating to the concept of sexual fluidity – Could Jessica’s sexual landscape change? Based on how we see that she falls in love with a woman, the answer is yes. Sexual desire goes beyond genetic attraction, but extends to emotion fancy and lust. As a result of Jessica’s ability to reject her tradition sexual orientation, her sexual landscape is …show more content…
I believe that anyone, even someone who’s heterosexual, can identify as queer because being queer does not mean just being homosexual, but it is a rejection of label explaining who you are and who you like and it. By definition, to be queer means you are free of restriction, and crave the openness of any possibility of love. Jessica Stein is not queer because she engages in a relationship with a woman, who knows, Helen could be the only woman she ever loves, but Jessica Stein is queer because she rejects traditional sexual identities and succumbs to her desires for a life alternating love, regardless of the
In Vicki L. Eaklor’s Queer America, the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the years since the 1970s gay liberation movement are described as a time of transformation and growth. The antigay movement, threatened, now more than ever, created numerous challenges and obstacles that are still prevalent today. Many of the important changes made associated with the movement were introduced through queer and queer allied individuals and groups involved in politics. Small victories such as the revision of the anti discrimination statement to include “sexual orientation”, new propositions regarding the Equal Rights Amendment and legalized abortion, were met in turn with growing animosity and resistance from individuals and groups opposed to liberal and
... homosexual being felt in the world around the 1970’s and 1980’s. The time period in which this play was written was one of great dissonance to the LGBT movement. For Harvey Fierstein to be so bold and public with his own lifestyle was truly admirable and brave. Fierstein shows us that ignorance can destroy a life because of what is unknown.
They mention the transition of “the closet,” as being a place in which people could not see you, to becoming a metaphor over the last two decades of the twentieth century used for queers who face a lack of sexual identity. Shneer and Aviv bring together two conflicting ideas of the American view of queerness: the ideas of the past, and the present. They state as queerness became more visible, people finally had the choice of living multiple lives, or integrating one’s lives and spaces (Shneer and Aviv 2006: 245). They highlight another change in the past twenty years as the clash between being queer and studying queerness (Shneer and Aviv 2006: 246-7). They argue that the active and visible contests over power among American queers show that queers now occupy an important place in our culture. They expand on the fact that queerness, real, and performed, is everywhere (Shneer and Aviv 2006: 248). This source shows the transformation in American culture of the acceptance of queerness. It makes an extremely critical resource by providing evidence of the changes in culture throughout the last two decades. Having the information that queerness is becoming more accepted in culture links to a higher percentage of LGBTQ youths becoming comfortable with their sexual identity. However, compared to the other sources, this
In an effort to legitimize all subcategories of sexuality considered deviant of heterosexual normatively, queer theory acknowledges nontraditional sexual identities by rejecting the rigid notion of stabilized sexuality. It shares the ideals of gender theory, applying to sexuality the idea that gender is a performative adherence to capitalist structures that inform society of what it means to be male, female, gay, and straight. An individual’s conformity to sexual or gendered expectations indicates both perpetration and victimization of the systemic oppression laid down by patriarchal foundations in the interest of maintaining power within a small group of people. Seeking to deconstruct the absolute nature of binary opposition, queer theory highlights and celebrates literary examples of gray areas specifically regarding sexual orientation, and questions those which solidify heterosexuality as the “norm”, and anything outside of it as the “other”.
In Amy Hempel’s “The Most Girl Part of You” and “Going”, Big Guy and the narrator, respectively, both suffer grave tragedies that have left them in a state of emotional turmoil and psychological distress. In “The Most Girl Part of You” Big Guy’s method to his madness is self-harm and mutilation in coping with his mothers suicide. Similarly, in “Going” the narrator flips his car speeding in the desert resulting in his hospitalization for sustained injuries, due to his inability to deal with the loss of his mother. The characters are only able to feel “alive” during these brief moments of pain and agony, where they would otherwise feel bound and haunted by their grief. This is evident when the narrator in “Going” talks about driving through
...am Victorian society, sexual liberalism transformed the ways in which people arranged their private lives. Shifting from a Victorian environment of production, separate sexual spheres, and the relegation of any illicit extramarital sex to an underworld of vice, the modern era found itself in a new landscape of consumerism, modernism and inverted sexual stereotypes. Sexuality was now being discussed, systemized, controlled, and made an object of scientific study and popular discourse. Late nineteenth-century views on "natural" gender and sexuality, with their attendant stereotypes about proper gender roles and proper desires, lingered long into the twentieth century and continue, somewhat fitfully, to inform the world in which we live. It is against this cultural and political horizon that an understanding of sexuality in the modern era needs to be contextualized.
Halperin, David. "Is There a History of Sexuality?." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Ed. Henry
Milstein, Susan A. Taking Sides Clashing Views in Human Sexuality. Ed. William J. Taverner and Ryan W. McKee. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
Sexuality gained a connection to the truth. This results into the idea that sexuality is a part of identity and a key aspect in understating who we are individual. And all of this is only possible due to the discourse of sexuality, which is determined by social culture and time. However, the idea that sexuality objectively defines who you are is false, because the idea where this is based on, the “repressive hypothesis” also is
If one choses to settle are they still winning? The “character contests” in “The Kiss” by Kate Chopin lead Nathalie to settle with the rich Brantain rather than Harvy, the man she loves. “Character contests” are what shape our daily life. Described by sociologist Erving Goffman, he argues that a “character contest” isn’t just an external conflict; “character contests” shape our perception of ourselves and others. Nathalie’s personal sense of identity is changed as an outcome of the character contests in “The Kiss” by Kate Chopin because of her failure to manipulate both Harvy and Brantain. Her decision to settle for Brantain reveals that she ultimately cares more about society’s perception of her rather than love.
Wilton, Tamsin. "Which One's the Man? The Heterosexualisation of Lesbain Sex." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 157-70. Print.
Stein, Edward. The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual Orientation. New York, NY: Oxford UP, 1999. Print. 20 Oct. 2011
In the face of a homophobic society we need creative and critical processes that draw out the complexity of lesbian lives and same sex choices, not a retreat into the comforting myths of heroines and unfractured, impeachable identities
Sexual orientation is a key aspect in any person’s life. The way of life for a gay, lesbian, and all sexual minorities are drastically different than those who are heterosexual. The critical time period for sexual development is in the early stages of childhood. Although childhood is a critical period, many studies have been conducted ranging from those in their twenties and thirties (Carver, Perry, & Egan, 2004). Storms (1981) believes that the content of one’s sexual fantasies that arouses the stimuli of their erotic orientation. Storms (1981) also stated that sexual orientation is a combination of social development and sexual development that takes place during an individual’...
The sexual orientation of a person has been a critical debate over the past several centuries. For several...