Heshe? Shehe? He? She? WE? #genderprobz

Throughout the semester our class has discussed (to great lengths) the idea of gender, and gender stereotypes. Although our readings have been varied they all have had one constant idea: society sets expectations of how a male or female should act. As Kate Bornstein explains in “My Gender Workbook,” “What the doctor says you are at birth, usually determined by the presence (male) or absence (female) of a penis. Most cultures assign some permanent, immutable gender at birth” (28). This assignment can cause huge issues down the line, which is present in the novel “Cereus Blooms at Night.”

Here we are presented with Tyler, a person that identifies “neither properly man nor woman but some in-between, unnamed thing (71). However due to his presence of a penis, he is considered to and referred to as a male. This is a huge issue for Tyler, because he has grown up in a society that tells him he must be one or the other, yet he feels like he is neither. As Bornstein understands, “identity is personal; it’s what we feel our gender to be at any given moment (28).” Unfortunately Tyler is aware that his society must force him to chose one or the other, so in public he presents as male. If it was up to him, he would express himself the way he felt. Instead of just acting as he pleases, he has to actively conform to society by presenting as male, even though he feels he is not one. Bornstein would disagree with Tyler’s society on their view of gender, and find it extremely limiting and misused.

Bornstein further explains gender in relation to the gender identity by saying “the socially acceptable easy way to define one’s sexual preference or orientation (who we want to be sexual with) depends on the gender identity of our sexual partners” (28). This makes for an extremely interesting case regarding Tyler and his significant other, Otoh. Otoh, by birth, would be gender classified as a woman. He made the transition without anyone noticing to a man. He is accepted by society as a man, because he outwardly appears to be a male. Now we have Tyler- man nor woman-, and Otoh- man and woman. Although society would not accept either of their “non confining gender identities,” only accepting male or female gender representations, Bornstein would once again disagree, believing that you can be ” man or a woman or something else entirely” (28).  Although Tyler’s society is not completely accepting of gays, it is proven at the end of the novel that they are more accepting of a man dating a man, than if they had presented themselves as something completely “out of the ordinary.” This is shown through Tyler and Otoh showing public displays of affection to each other without shame. Society easily defines these two apparent men in a queer relationship, when really their gender identities and sexual preferences are way more complex than what meets the eye.

Free at last! Free at last!

“The reason Miss Ramchadin paid me no attention was that, to her mind, the outfit was not something to either congratulate or scorn-it simply was. She was not one to manacle nature, and I sensed she was permitting mine its freedom (pg 77).”

This quote comes after Tyler tries on women’s clothing for the first time. He expected Miss Ramchadin to react, and as this quote demonstrates, she did not. The punctuation emphasizes this moment. This sentence reads at a slower pace than the previous sentences, when he is trying on the dress, due to the use of commas and a dash. The previous sentences are all jumbled and full of details of how he was feeling when putting on all the components of the dress. Now that he has it all on, he has had time to gather himself and reflect on his feelings of the dress, and prepare for the reaction of someone other than himself. The commas are used so the sentence reads at a slower, calmer, pace, while also emphasizing that it is only Miss Ramchadin who would accept Tyler in this dress. The sentence would still make sense without that phrase “to her mind” stuck in between the commas, but Tyler needed to emphasize this acceptance was just from Miss Ramchadin and not everyone else, because he is treated so poorly by every other character in the novel.  By neither congratulating or scorning this moment in his life, just ignoring and acting as if this action is normal and nothing to make a fuss over, Tyler for the first in this novel is simply able to be the person he wants to be without being judged. The use of the dash “-it simply was” demonstrates that Tyler feels relief that he is not being judged. He is able to take a deep breath, bask in this moment, and simply be.

The next sentence is what intrigued me most about the passage. To me, from the language in this sentence, it is my understanding that Tyler felt like a prisoner in his own body. The words “manacle” and “freedom” are extreme opposites, and each have associations with those whom are imprisoned. The definition of manacle is to fetter a person with shackles. By saying that “she was not one to manacle nature” it demonstrates that Tyler has felt, by the actions of others in his life, that his natural state of being has been trapped inside him unable to be expressed, shackled like a prisoner of his body. This reminded me of  “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. Just as Dr. Jekyll was unable to express his true self, Tyler was unable to express his true self. Instead of having evil grow inside him due to lack of acceptance like Jekyll, Tyler had Miss Ramachadin to accept him. Now, finally, because Miss Ramachadin is not passing judgment on Tyler, she permitted his nature to be freed. She didn’t react to him, chastise him for the way he was being, and at this moment he was freed from his imprisonment from his body.  For once in his life, he could express himself in any way he desired. He was free at last.

Wardrobe Malfunction

“Jaqueline was an overcoat. She muffled my senses. With her I forgot about feeling and wallowed in contentment. Contentment is a feeling you say? Are you sure it’s not an absence of feeling? I liken it to that particular numbness one gets after a visit to the dentist. Not in pain nor out of it, slightly drugged. Contentment is the positive side of resignation. It has its appeal but it’s no good at wearing an overcoat and furry slippers and heavy gloves when what the body really wants is to be naked.” (76)

What really intrigued me about this passage is that it begins with the use of clothing to cover the narrator’s body, and ends with the narrator expressing ze only wants to be naked. It was also interesting to read the narrator’s take on ze’s relationship with Jaqueline, which was contentment, and ze’s explanation of contentment.

The narrator believes that ze has no special connection to Jaqueline. Ze felt contentment, which ze says is an absence of feeling, but nothing more. One can even say that ze did not even like Jaqueline, as ze likened their relationship to a trip to the dentist, and nobody enjoys a trip to the dentist and the pain that comes with it. Ze felt nothing, just numbness, a drugged state of being. While reading this I became extremely angry with the narrator. Why would ze waste Jaqueline’s time and lead her on like this? Ze obviously wanted to be rid of Jaqueline, yet continued to keep her around until she found something better (Louise), and then Z ditched Jaqueline the moment Louise expressed interest in the narrator.

The comparison of Jaqueline to heavy clothing is really interesting. Ze wants to be rid of the heavy clothing (Jaqueline) that the narrator thinks is suffocating. Yet again I asked myself the question, “Why did ze keep Jaqueline around for such a long period of time, if ze just wanted to be free?”Although there is no clear answer, I thought that perhaps it is because no matter what gender or who ze is, ze has the same humanly desires that we all do. I turned to Micheal Warner’s “Trouble with Normal,” which talks a bit about humanely desires. Everyone has sexual and human desires, no matter their sexual orientation. The sexual desires may all not be uniform, but on some level everyone has them (3-6). It is common thought that everyone has the humanely desire for someone to love and protect them. I began to think that perhaps Jaqueline is ze’s “safety blanket” (or clothing) that protected ze. Ze may claim that ze wanted to be naked, or free from Jaqueline, when truly ze wanted the warmth of clothing (a person) around ze, no matter what (who) the clothing was. Ze wanted the warmth of a companion, no matter whom that person was. But then, the new “line of clothing” (Louise) was released, and the narrator decided to upgrade ze’s wardrobe. This comparison shows that to ze, relationships are disposable, just as clothes are.

“…and they lived happily ever after”

“Odd that marriage, a public display and free to all, gives way to that most secret of liaisons, an adulterous affair.” (16).

In the civil and religious world, marriage is a binding contract. There is a certain image of the “perfect marriage” that society has indoctrinated us all with. Society dictates that marriage is between two people whom love each other and wish to spend the rest of their lives together, sharing every bit of themselves with one another, and  presenting a perfect image of themselves as a couple to all that look at their relationship. Society says this union is a partnership with no secrecy or issues. As we all know, this is never the case. This short but precise sentence eloquently expresses what I have thought about marriage for quite a while.

The use of punctuation in this passage is very telling of how the narrator feels about the “sanctity” of marriage. Every thought regarding marriage is separated by a comma. I took this to be that the narrator is pausing for the narrator to sigh in disgust. The narrator is fed up with the unholiness of the marriages the narrator has witnessed. The narrator has had many affairs with married women, and knows that those marriages are shams. The narrator knows that these woman stay in these marriages, although they wish to be with the narrator, in order to keep their societal image and acceptance. These commas are used to express and emphasize the disgust that the narrator feels towards those marriages that are just illusions for the public eye.

This passage also emphasizes that marriage, the perfect and ultimate union of two people, is not always what it seems. This also applies to the concept of the family unit. However, to fit in with society, most people want to have a perfect marriage and family to show off to the world.  This concept of the desire to have a perfect family unit is discussed in Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s writing “Tendencies.” In her writing Sedgwick says

“Looking at my own life, I see that-probably like most people-I have valued and pursued these various elements of family identity to quite differing degrees….I see it’s been a ruling intuition for me that the most productive strategy (intellectually, emotionally) might be, whenever possible, to disarticulate them from one another, to disengage them-the bonds of blood, of law, of habitation, of privacy, of companionship and succor- from the lockstep of the unanimity in system called family.” (pg6).

The desire for a perfect familial image and identity begins with the foundation of a perfect marriage. Society tells us to strive for perfection and happiness, and a way to do that is to have a family. The pressure from society to maintain this image eventually leads to people being forced into lives they never wished for themselves.

The Monster Inside

“Many a man would have blazoned such irregularities as I was guilty of; but from the high views that I had set before me I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame.” (42)

This quote is directly explaining why Jekyll wanted to explore the “Hyde” or “evil” side of the person he had become. Society has a moral code that Jekyll knew he must follow, yet at the same time he had inner thoughts and feelings that conflicted with the societal norm. He felt shamed by his desires and knew he must suppress them. This created a monster within Jekyll- Hyde-that eventually needed to be let loose.

The language used in this quote highlights the extreme shame Jekyll was feeling. The words Stevenson uses to describe Jekyll’s irregularities- that Jekyll was guilty of irregularities, the morbid sense of shame- all have a negative connotation to them. Guilty is usually used to describe the verdict of a crime and is extremely harsh. Morbid is daunting and depressing. This demonstrates Jekyll was feeling extreme shame because of what society would have done to him had they found out about his irregularities.

This quote is a very telling part of the novel as we see how Hyde was born. Hyde had not always been within Jekyll. He was formed within Jekyll years after Jekyll’s birth. My realization is that society is to blame for the creation of the monster. As Warner wrote in the “Trouble with Normal,”

“All too commonly, people think not only their own way of living is right, but that it should be everyone else’s moral standard as well.” (4)

we see that society dictates what is normal and what is irregular.Why do we accept this? Why does almost everyone feel the need to at least try to fit into what society dictates to be the perfect mold? Jekyll was forced to hide his irregularities just as many of us do to fit into society. We all have our own Hyde’s within us, hiding from societal norms; we just do not let them out to explore.