Jeanette Winterson’s decision to avoid using pronouns for the main character is glaringly obvious through the entirety of the novel. As humans living in a society obsessed with categories and the concept of binaries in regards to gender, it is easy to project a certain gender onto the main character. This decision could be based on context clues that are typically associated with gender roles, or personal internal struggle. Just because the main character does not use gendered pronouns does not mean that this text is devoid of them. In fact, the repetition of pronouns in reference to the narrator’s lovers reveals that the text as a whole is about the experiences of closeness with the body that all types of people can have. There is no definitive mandate of who can and cannot experience physical and emotional closeness with a person.
When yearning for Louise after they have left her, the narrator muses, “Her smell. Specific Louise smell. Her hair” (110). The short sentences at the beginning of the paragraph highlight these sensory details. Instead of going into great detail about what Louise’s specific scent is, the narrator choses to leave the reader with fragments. These fragments actually serve to enhance the closeness between the reader and Louise– they emphasize Louise’s femininity that is essential to her smell, to her hair. They let the audience know that the narrator is experiencing and admiring Louise for all of her, regardless of who the narrator may be. The narrator’s gender is not crucial in appreciating and experiencing another person.
These details also allow the audience to imagine what scents or sights might be associated with femininity in their minds. “Her smell” could be anything. Is it traditionally feminine, floral, fragrant and fruity? Or is Louise’s smell something else, like linen, mahogany, or patchouli? It could be any of those, that is a decision the reader must make using what they know of Louise, and their conceptions of femininity in general. What does “her” mean when isolated from the influence of the narrator’s gender? This allows the reader to insert their own ideas, and forge their own closeness with Louise independent of how they themselves might identify.