Final Reflections on Stone Butch Blues

To conclude class today, I’d like you to post one last reflection on this novel to our course blog. Imagine you are writing a letter to Jess Goldberg to tell hir what you’ve gained by reading hir life story. What would you like to tell this character about what you’ve witnessed in the past few weeks? What lessons, insights, or questions will you take away from hir experiences? What perspectives did ze share with you that you found valuable, challenging, difficult, or uplifting? Why do you think you’re responding in the way that you are? Based on your experience as a reader, how might reading this novel change your own life or future actions? To help you get yourself in the right mindset, make sure and start your comment with "Dear Jess," ...

Discussion Questions for Stone Butch Blues

To focus our discussion of the middle sections of Stone Butch Blues, I’d like you to get into small groups (see group assignments below) and discuss the questions I’ve posed below. As you discuss them, please appoint one of your group members to take notes on your conversation, and at the end of the conversation, I’d like you all to work together to draft a short response that you can post to our course blog. (As we did a few weeks ago, I’d like our blog to be a resource for everyone in the class when you turn to writing your upcoming essay.) For all these questions, I would like you to identify at least two passages that help you answer the question or provide a compelling illustration for what you think is going on in the novel.

Here the three main questions, I’d like us to start with today:

• In “Chapter 12,” Jess tells us, “It was 1968” (124). What is the significance of this date? What is happening in the larger world and in Jess’s community? How does this impact her life and her evolving identity?

• Focus your discussion on Theresa as a character. Who is she? What does she represent for Jess? How does she evolve as a character and what are the consequences of her transformation for herself and on Jess?

• Why do so many of the butches in this novel start thinking about taking (and actually taking) hormones and passing as (or becoming) men? What social, political, and economic changes occur that make transitioning appealing or seem like an inevitable option?

Here are the groups I’d like you to work in today:

• Group 1: Sam, Tessa, Samantha & Jessi M.
• Group 2: Jessica, Mackenzie, Montana & Nermina
• Group 3: Ali, Yurika, Helen & Lynsey
• Group 4: Dahisy, Jessie G.G., Kelsey & Lauren
• Group 5: Karolyn, Duncan, Aspen & Varinia
• Group 6: Alyssa, Court, Deidre & Gabe
• Group 7: Shannon, Natalie, Mariam & Chelsea

Once you draft your responses to these questions, post them to our blog (or appoint a group member to post them later today once you have access to the internet).

Initial reflections on Stone Butch Blues

To start class today, I’d like you to take 10-15 minutes and reflect on your initial responses to Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues. What do you think so far about this novel? How would you describe your intitial reading experience? What seems particularly striking or challenging about it as a text? What’s the most important insight into gender that you think you’ve gained by reading it?

Second, identify the most significant passage or scene that you’ve read and briefly describe it to the rest of class, including a brief quotation (and page number) that captures this moment in the text. Then, explain why you think it is significant.