\u201cI am used to being an observer.<\/p>\n
I am used to not getting what I want.<\/p>\n
I am used to imagining what it must be like. \u201c<\/p>\n
(Loving in the War Years, <\/em>page 26)<\/p>\n I believe that these three lines from Cherrie L. Moraga\u2019s book \u201cLoving in the War Years\u201d express the deep frustration of a queer person constantly watching other people\u2019s love and affection for each other but never being able to experience it for themselves due to self-doubts and\/or the emotional struggle of living openly queer, as well as the intolerance of society.<\/p>\n I reached that conclusion because the repetition of the words \u2018I am used to\u2019 symbolize the hamster wheel the lyrical I is trapped in and experiences the same situations over and over. On one hand, it is referring to the love openly shown by happy couples, on the other hand, the lyrical I is talking about sexual experiences, that they do not have. \u00a0Also the word \u2018observer\u2019 enhances the argument that the lyrical I is watching and hearing about other people\u2019s love from the distance, but never playing the main character in the interaction. \u00a0For me these lines indicate such deep frustration and capitulation and portray the picture of the lyrical I not believing in their own happiness anymore.<\/p>\n Sadly, I assume that these lines express many queer people\u2019s reality. Our society is still not fully inclusive and tolerating of LGBTQ members, leading to queer people often keeping their sexuality and identity to themselves. Therefore, it is really tuff for them to connect with each other and have the opportunity to make the same experiences regarding love and sexuality as heterosexual couples. Moreover, I state that the majority of heterosexual people is not even aware of the fact that they have the privilege to openly express their sexuality due to centuries old heterosexual norms and the emotional struggle it often presents to queer people.<\/p>\n All in all, these lines are a great example of the frustration and unhappiness queer people experience on daily basis because they watch other happy couples from the sideline but do not receive the same chance to make the same romantic experiences due to a society that still comments, raises attention and sadly often still not accepts queer love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI am used to being an observer. I am used to not getting what I want. I am used to imagining what it must be like. \u201c (Loving in the War Years, page 26) I believe that these three lines from Cherrie L. Moraga\u2019s book \u201cLoving in the War Years\u201d express the deep frustration of … Continue reading Watching from the sideline<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846","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\/5020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}