\u201cThe reason Miss Ramchandin paid me no attention was that, to her mind, the outfit was not something to either congratulate or scorn \u2013 it simply was. She was not one to manacle nature, and I sensed that she was permitting mine its freedom.\u201d (77)<\/p>\n
The relationship between Tyler and Miss Ramchandin is both devastating and beautiful. They put together out of necessity; they share the need for understanding in a world that thrives off of the power obtained through subjugating their identities (Tyler as queer, and Ramchandin as a criminal.) The comparison is not exact, as these two identities are obviously not parallel. However, both function in a society that thrives off the power that they wield through the labels they provide and the assumed characteristics and dangers that are attached. While this relationship is tragic in its necessity, beauty is found in their shared \u201cotherness\u201d, as well as their shared acceptance of each other\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n
This passage represents Miss Ramchandin\u2019s relationship with Tyler perfectly. Tyler, wearing the nurse\u2019s outfit that Miss Ramchandin knew he wanted to put on, fails to elicit any response to an act that would invoke any number in reactions to others at the hospital. Miss Ramchandin, however, treats the act as she would any other natural<\/em> occurrence. Tyler states later in the section that he had \u201cnever felt so extremely ordinary\u201d (78) while wearing the outfit. Miss Ramchandin experienced his identity in the same way, as ordinary or natural.<\/p>\n There is an incredible irony in the choice of the phrase \u201cShe was not one to manacle nature\u2026\u201d (77), given that Miss Ramchandin herself is shackled to her bed, and in a way, shackled to an identity she is forced into. In order to survive, just as Tyler does, she is forced to perform an identity that is accepted by those in the positions of power. Whereas Tyler feels \u201cordinary\u201d when wearing the nurse\u2019s outfit, he must perform a more acceptably masculine role in order to be accepted by those he works with. In order to continue to receive care, Miss Ramchandin must cooperate with the identity she\u2019s placed under. Because of this, she too (rather emblematically) remains silent.<\/p>\n In this case, however, Miss Ramchandin allows Tyler the freedom to express his natural identity. While she must remain (quite literally) shackled to her own misunderstood identity, she is \u201c\u2026 permitting mine [Tyler\u2019s] its freedom\u201d (77). For a brief moment, one of the two \u201cothers\u201d has the opportunity to embrace their \u201cotherness\u201d as non-deviant, unquestioned, and normal. The tragic beauty of their bond is developed through continued naturalization of each\u2019s \u201cotherness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe reason Miss Ramchandin paid me no attention was that, to her mind, the outfit was not something to either congratulate or scorn \u2013 it simply was. She was not one to manacle nature, and I sensed that she was permitting mine its freedom.\u201d (77) The relationship between Tyler and Miss Ramchandin is both devastating … Continue reading The Naturalization of “Otherness” and the (literal) Freedom of Identity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2538,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2538"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}