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).
For question one our group discussed how the Vietnam protests lead to the nation critically examining its views on war, and this examination spilled over into the lives of many individuals, including our characters, to examine their own views on many matters. These examinations lead to many conflicts within the butch community, and was pivotal in the changes that began to tear Jess and Theresa apart. The Civil Rights and Feminist movement of the times also contributed to the spirit of change and questioning of life as society knew it.
ReplyDeleteThe character Theresa at first represents acceptence and stability fr Jess. She helps to affirm her butch identity by playing the femme role. She also helps Jess begin to move from participating within only her small butch centered world into the larger issues at play outside of her. Through her involvements in protests and in groups in the university Theresa becomes more radicalized, and acts as an agent of bridging the worlds between the butches and the academics on campus. She eventually acts as a catalyst for Jess to question what identity means for her and helps her continue in her quest to find an authentic and compelling gender identification.
In the third question we discussed how the butches used to be a fairly accepting and inclusive group, but when some started taking hormones there began to be more conflict. This emphasized the importance of in-groups and out-groups, and the rigidly defined codes one must adhere to to belong. Taking these hormones provided the social advantage of the ability to potentially transgress the discrimination and brutality often found amongst the female sex. It provided the economic advantage of being able to better hold down a job (something very important to these working class women) as more and more women began to join the labor force and become competition in the workforce.
Group members: Jessica, Mackenzie, Montana & Nermina
For the first question, we discussed in depth all the movements that were going on regarding Stonewall and Martin Luther King, Jr’s death. Questions about the Vietnam War were also being faced, especially when Ed gets in Grant’s face. We focused on page 131, especially when Jan, Grant, Ed, and Jess were discussing Stonewall and what had happened at the bar in their own community when Theresa and Georgette helped get Justine away from the cops. This was a moment when thing were getting better in Jess’s own community.
ReplyDeleteThough we first hear about Theresa in the letter at the beginning of the book, when Jess is in the relationship with her we got a better understanding of their relationship and of Theresa herself. After the first connection between them in the factory, Jess feels good being flirted with outside of the bar. Theresa ends up representing safety and comfort, but also change. Theresa becomes very interested in women’s liberation and protests on campus. However they had such different work environments that going through the new changes was more difficult for Jess than for Theresa. Their relationship came into the spotlight on page 148, when they were both discussing what they want. As stated by Theresa: “I just don’t want to be some man’s wife, even if that man’s a woman.”
The taking of hormones seemed to be an easy decision for some of the butches, but in the beginning a slightly difficult decision for Jess. She feels discomfort in the world and is constantly battling where she thinks she belongs. The question, “What is it?” constantly follows Jess wherever she goes. The economic change that makes taking hormones more appealing is they are easier to get. Jess also works in an industry where men are more of the workers than women. Socially, Jess just wants to pass, and she feels elation the day she finally does.
Group members: Alyssa, Karolyn, Varinia, and Aspen
Group members: court natalie shannon and chelsea
ReplyDeletefor the first question we discussed the changing social norms,and civil liberties and civil rights movements. Also all of the different movements going on like Black and Chicano power and the freedom riders etc. and the events of Stone Wall. we discussed the Vietnam war and anti war protests going on and the police fore not really knowing how to deal with everything, increasing brutality with all the different movements. on page 135 describes this saying "the police really stepped up their harassment after the birth of gay pride." within the book there is a break down in Jess' life, when all the bars are closing down, the jobs decrease and factories are breaking down due to the recession. we thought a passage that was important was on page 136 when Jess is describing being in the jail in Rochester laying on the cell floor.
for the second question we described Teresa as a radical feminist who works at the university as a secretary. she fought for womanhood while Jess was fighting for her identity. it had become larger scale activism and movements as opposed to smaller scale changes. now everyone was trying to change the institutions instead of breaking down within them. on page 148 when Teresa said "i am a woman, Jess. i love you because you're a woman too. i made up my mind when i was growing up that i was not going to betray my desire by resigning myself to marry a dirt farmer or the boy at the service station. do you understand?"
for the third question we said that socially the bars had all closed down so there was no place for them to come together, so people dispersed. economically with the recession a lot of them lost their jobs. and politically they didn't really have activists support and with the hormones the butches really gained a voice and recognition in politics because they were running out of options.
Our group discussed the significance of the cultural revolutions that were happening across the board in 1968. We mentioned Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, anti-war protests, second-wave feminism, and sexual liberations. All these movements empowered all that were seeking change by emphasizing the importance of uniting to achieve their purpose. Here we mentioned how the different views that Theresa and Jess had of the world became the source of change for both of them.
ReplyDeleteTheresa, Jess’ lover, represents stability and warm. She is home for Jess, the individual that can ‘melt her stone.’ Theresa becomes active is the women’s liberation movement and brings home with her these new ideas. Jess, completely secluded within the factory walls, is uncertain about how to approach this change. She is the bridge between both worlds and the transformation that each one of them goes through ends up putting too much tension on their relationship. The whole exchange between them becomes a battle of identity; what they each need to be views as.
With the way that society was changing, taking hormones, we agreed, was the most logical approach. Not only was unemployment running high for the butches but safety was definitely a concern. The need to fit in one way or the other shifts a bit into the grounds of survival. Tired of being discriminated against the idea of no longer being raped, or violently abused and successfully passing could lighten their load.
Group members: Dahisy, Jess G.G., Kelsey & Jessi M.
In 1968 many things were occurring. The Women's Movement, Vietnam, Stonewall, and the death of Martin Luther king happened, what seemed to happen all at once. During this time working together was crucial, and many people began to realize this. For Theresa and Jess, there views differed. Theresa was becoming more of a feminist working at her job, while Jess was separated from these things.
ReplyDeleteTheresa is the women in many ways that melts Jess's stone. She is the person Jess can go to and allows Jess to relax in many ways. As Theresa continues to work for the University, she starts to evolve more into a feminist. She states over and over again about how the women will not let her into their group. This slowly tears Jess and Theresa apart. We thought that Theresa trying to conform to the feminist group made her more into what she thought others viewed her as.
Many of the butches start taking hormones to not only get jobs but to survive in a lot of ways. Passing as a man helped economically and socially, because they could get a job. Politically it was having an upper hand in being apart of something larger than the butch and femme world.
Group: Ali, Yurika, & Helen
Many things were happening and changing in the world and around Jess at this time: From the war to the birth of Gay Pride during this year. For Jess this was a huge time where the police upped their game of working to in many ways teach lesbians (especially butch women) a lesson and show mens power over women. This was also when feminism began to pick up speed, which ostrasized Jess from the only world she knew because she did not feel like she fit in the feministic world (which pushed her away from Theresa) and she knew she did fit into the world of being male either so she has no where to go.
ReplyDeleteTheresa was Jess’s first real, true, honest love. She represented a family and a life that she had never known. More than that Theresa represented safety to Jess, allowing her to be a little more open and trusting with someone. However, when Theresa engaged more with the feminism movement (as well as Jess taking hormones) the couple began to tear apart due to the fact that they subscribed to different ways of thinking as well as where they thought each of them would/ could fit into the world. To Theresa, the transformation empowered her to stand for something, it was just something that Jess could not understand or back up.
Many of the butches at minimum had thoughts about taking hormones and potentially becoming a man for an array of reasons. Socially it was difficult to be a butch in this time because many of the gay bars were closing, it was difficult for them to gain respect from the men that they were surrounded by as well as their employers, and to some of them it was an option to feel more at home in their own bodies. Politically if some kind of transition of this sort was to occur it was (in some ways) easier because they ‘fit’ somewhere, as well as the fact that they had more of a say in what was going on and they had the opportunity to get their opinions listened to more often. Economically it was easier to get a job as (or as passing as) a man because then their strength wouldn’t have been an question, they were no longer a ‘threat’ to the rest of the employees, and they were more respected by everyone in the work place which helped then get and maintain jobs.