\u201cGender reaches into disability; disability wraps around class; class strains against abuse; abuse snarls into sexuality; sexuality folds on top of race … everything finally piling into a single human body. To write about any aspect of identity, any aspect of the body, means writing about this entire maze.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This quote from Eli Clare really stuck out to me. I know we discussed it in class, but I wanted to think about it deeper and share some of my thoughts. This passage highlights the true way that identity functions. It is not a set of distinct categories we fit into, but a combination of these things and the ways they intersect and interact together that define who we are. We discussed in class how the verbs that Clare uses, \u201creaches; wraps; strains; folds\u201d are important to understanding this passage. They suggest tension between these categories and how they are dependent on each other. It also suggests that there is some sort of movement, like we are always changing and growing, and the important aspects of our identity are moving and changing with us. Clare says, \u201cTo write about any aspect of identity, any aspect of the body, means writing about this entire maze\u201d (143). This line suggests that we can\u2019t rely on categories to neatly define ourselves like we would sometimes like to because identity is fluid, and we cannot talk about one category without talking about another.<\/p>\n
When thinking about this during class I couldn\u2019t help but think about family, specifically my brother and I. It\u2019s interesting to me that siblings can grow up together in the same house with the same parents and be treated so differently. I think this is more significant when there are two siblings who are different genders. Being the oldest and the only girl, I think a lot of pressure is placed on me that I don\u2019t see placed on my brother. The expectation that I will go to school, get a job, get married, have kids. Though that\u2019s never spoken aloud, and I know my parents love me no matter what, I know they secretly hope for that heteronormative life for me. It\u2019s hard to grow and change when I so what to be approved by my parents and meet their expectations for me. I think these ideals are not placed on my brother so much. It seems as if my parents aren\u2019t as concerned about whether he ends up married with kids or not. Traditional gender roles are hard to escape from, especially when gender and family are so deeply rooted in identity. Clare writes in \u201cThe Mountain\u201d, \u201cThe body as home, but only if it is understood that place and community and culture borrow deep into our bones\u201d (11). I feel my childhood, my family, my hometown, my parent\u2019s expectations deeply rooted in my identity and who I define myself as.<\/p>\n
Clare has a talent for being so deeply relatable. Though I may not share the same experiences as him, I\u2019m able to see myself in his words. His words remind me that identity is always evolving. Identity can be intertwined with any part of our lived experience, like my relationship to gender and societal\/familial expectations. Clare\u2019s relatability reveals that while our individual identities are unique, they cross the same broader systems that shape our lives. He challenges us to recognize this and embrace the complexity of who we are.<\/p>\n
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\u201cGender reaches into disability; disability wraps around class; class strains against abuse; abuse snarls into sexuality; sexuality folds on top of race … everything finally piling into a single human body. To write about any aspect of identity, any aspect of the body, means writing about this entire maze.” \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This quote from Eli Clare … Continue reading The Body as “Home”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5599,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[346812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-class-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2729","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\/5599"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}