A central theme of this poem revolves around the speaker observing other women like them (lesbians) engaging in \u201cmasculine\u201d activities\u201d. Moreover, in this stanza, how similar the women are to them but more specifically how they don\u2019t notice the differences (19-20). The men are referring to the women as one of them and don\u2019t choose to reprimand. It is not just because both groups are attracted to women or share the same dismay for other men. It\u2019s because the men see here a spectacle and choose to \u201cmarvel\u201d at it because of how different it is. Even though the speaker might be wary of men for a lot of reasons, the group of men chooses to focus on the similarities in dealing with romantic relationships.<\/p>\n
I believe not only this poem, but especially this stanza offers valuable insight into the question of identity and possibly the intersection with someone\u2019s personal as well as their LGTBQ identity. In this stanza, the men don\u2019t seem to acknowledge that the woman in front of them is a lesbian. It is not specified, but it could be that she is not presenting the stereotypical lesbian characteristics. \u00a0They can acknowledge that she is like them in a variety of ways, but because she is a woman, she is automatically put on a pedestal, regardless of her sexual orientation. This also makes me think of how this group of men would respond to a gay man. Even though they are both men, there might be a completely different direction because of the innate focus on the sexual orientation.<\/p>\n
I think this can connect to a feeling common in the LGBTQ community of having to manage other\u2019s perceptions of them separate from their gender identity. One identity can be focused on more than the other, which might lead to a sense of disconnect. The speaker might have been observing the respect from the men because of the female presenting identity, not necessarily from the lesbian identity. I think it comes back of how multiple \u2018things\u2019 can be true at once in the community and that being difficult for others outside to grasp (e.g someone being traditionally \u201cfem\u201d and being attracted to women).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A central theme of this poem revolves around the speaker observing other women like them (lesbians) engaging in \u201cmasculine\u201d activities\u201d. Moreover, in this stanza, how similar the women are to them but more specifically how they don\u2019t notice the differences (19-20). The men are referring to the women as one of them and don\u2019t choose … Continue reading Is she still a lesbian? How the third stanza in Loving On the Run by Cherr\u00ede Moraga examines gender identity in relation to lesbianism<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5406,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344663],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5406"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1404,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions\/1404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}