{"id":1415,"date":"2018-11-15T15:08:41","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T20:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=1415"},"modified":"2018-11-15T15:08:41","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T20:08:41","slug":"1-question-2-meanings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2018\/11\/15\/1-question-2-meanings\/","title":{"rendered":"1 question, 2 meanings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCould your sister be your brother too? Could your brother be your father?
\nCan your Pappy be your Pappy and your Grandpappy at the same time?\u201d (25)\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tyler is curious about the \u201crules\u201d of familial relationships that are somehow ingrained into the way we think about normalcy. He asks his grandma, whom he calls Cigarette Smoking Nana,\u00a0whether\u00a0an individual family member can share\/be two roles at once. This become the context for the story of\u00a0Ramchandin\u00a0and familial\/non-familial relationships.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before telling the story, Cigarette Smoking Nana explains that several familial roles can be shared by one individual. This concept is\u00a0an\u00a0unconventional\u00a0concept\u00a0because society has taught us that mothers inherently assume the motherly\u00a0role,\u00a0the father assumes the fatherly role, etc.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The hesitation in\u00a0Cigarette\u00a0Smoking Nana\u2019s answer depicts how unconventional the concept is.\u00a0It\u00a0further portrays the uncomfortableness and taboo surrounding such idea of shared familial roles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While this concept is unorthodox, it is\u00a0still evident in society. Sociology experts state that many lower-income families rely on each other. Meaning, someone\u2019s aunt (even though not blood related) can help raise a child that is not related to them. Another example would be single-parent households. A single mom takes on both the mother and father role.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This first part of the passage, \u201cCould your sister be your\u00a0brother\u00a0too?\u201d, could allude to the concept of gender roles and society. Being a sister is associated with feminine ideas such as dresses, makeup,\u00a0the color pink, and\u00a0opposition\u00a0to masculine ideas such as toy trucks, jeans, t-shirts, and short hair. Tyler\u2019s sexuality was evident through his\u00a0curiosity\u00a0of switching roles, familial and gender. Maybe he didn\u2019t know that he was essentially asking and looking for affirmation for his future self, who (as it becomes evident) likes to dress in women\u2019s clothing and is essentially sharing\/alternating between 2 roles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Introducing the idea of one individual sharing 2 roles suggests the confusion Tyler has about his sexuality and suggests that he wants to hide it by asking the same general question but with a different scenario. Just as an individual family\u00a0member\u00a0sharing more than one role is unconventional, so might the concept of being trans. While both concepts are evident in society, it is not part of the \u201cnormal\u201d narrative that we grow up with and is therefore seen as unconventional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cCould your sister be your brother too? Could your brother be your father? Can your Pappy be your Pappy and your Grandpappy at the same time?\u201d (25)\u00a0 Tyler is curious about the \u201crules\u201d of familial relationships that are somehow ingrained into the way we think about normalcy. He asks his grandma, whom he calls Cigarette … Continue reading 1 question, 2 meanings<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3321,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415","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\/3321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}