{"id":204,"date":"2014-03-27T11:22:53","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T15:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=204"},"modified":"2015-01-06T11:02:11","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T16:02:11","slug":"overlooking-the-obvious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2014\/03\/27\/overlooking-the-obvious\/","title":{"rendered":"Overlooking the Obvious"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The reason Miss Ramchandin paid me no attention was that, to her mind, the outfit was not something to either congratulate or scorn-it simply was.\u00a0 She was not one to manacle nature, and I sensed that she was permitting mine its freedom\u201d (Mootoo, 77).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The words \u201ccongratulate\u201d and \u201cscorn,\u201d offer a binary, which is quickly dismissed when Tyler says \u201cit simply was,\u201d implying that the normality or abnormality of his ensemble did not matter to Miss Ramchandin and thus was a moot point. Therefore, the binary is evident, but holds little to no meaning.\u00a0 Although Miss Ramchandin may not be 100% \u201cwith it\u201d mentally, her blindness to Tyler\u2019s change suggests that perhaps she looks for deeper qualities than can be found on the exterior.<\/p>\n

Tyler treats her with fairness and respect, something that she may not be used to, given her incest-filled past, and as a result; she looks at Tyler as a kind-spirited person, no matter how he dresses or acts.\u00a0 Similarly, Tyler is not always treated well or taken seriously, so from that regard the two share a special, non-judgmental bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was not one to manacle nature.\u201d\u00a0 This passage suggests that Miss Ramchandin may disagree with the male\/female gender binary that exists.\u00a0 Manacles are often used when discussing restraining measures taken on criminals, which is interesting, because those who do not conform to one or the other gender are often treated as criminals, as if there is something wrong<\/i> with them.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re either a man or a woman; if you are a man, you are masculine and if you are a woman, you\u2019re feminine. These are the expectations, a biological imperative, and anything that does not fit the mold is out casted and treated differently than those who conform. But why does nature have to be \u201cmanacled?\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Bornstein discusses her opinion concerning the issue in \u201cMy Gender Workbook,\u201d openly disagreeing with the binary expectation placed on us by society.\u00a0 The quote from Mootoo\u2019s novel indirectly supports this, saying essentially that gender should be \u201cpermitt[ed] its freedom,\u201d something that Miss Ramchandin does!\u00a0 Overall, I think that Miss Ramchandin\u2019s difficult past has allowed her to see past the \u201csocietal bad\u201d in people, or rather, the differences that they may exhibit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The reason Miss Ramchandin paid me no attention was that, to her mind, the outfit was not something to either congratulate or scorn-it simply was.\u00a0 She was not one to manacle nature, and I sensed that she was permitting mine its freedom\u201d (Mootoo, 77). The words \u201ccongratulate\u201d and \u201cscorn,\u201d offer a binary, which is quickly … Continue reading Overlooking the Obvious<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","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\/2037"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}