Also, something interesting Amanda and I also discussed was that there was little discussion of Laurence's physical experience when he was playing the part of Cecilia. We see Berto help him into his disguise and then we see him take the clothes off, but there is not discussion of the in between times. So I wondered how he felt about having to wear such clothes. Did he feel bound and constricted? Did he feel some freedom to unbind his chest (since we assumed he was binding his breasts while he was away at school)? And even though we see them doing a dance and burning the clothes once he becomes Laurence again, we never get much discussion of the constriction the clothes would have been. Well, those are just my first few thoughts. I really need to think about this book more. It is so very interesting and complex.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thoughts on Sexuality and The Hermaphrodite
This book, The Hermaphrodite, has been an unusual text for me to read. I honestly have not read anything like it before. And like I told Amanda in our tête-à-tête this week, I did not enjoy reading this book but I did like that it made me think about my beliefs about gender and how gender is constructed in our society. This has been especially interesting to me since I have also been reading about gender in my feminist theory class, especially Simone de Beauvoir and Julia Kristeva. Their questions about what defines a woman caused me to think differently about this text. For example, Beauvoir states, "One is not born a woman, one becomes one." So if we follow this argument when looking at Laurence, we can say that even if he has biological female parts, because he was chosen to be a man and continues to live as a man, even if he has female breasts and beautiful "female" hair, he is not a women because he chooses not to become one. The other idea I found interesting from Kristeva is her belief that we are not just one distinct sexual identity and that there are as many identities as there are people. This argument would also support a reading of Laurence as an intersexed person who is a sexual object to both women and men. What is troubling for me about this novel is that Laurence is so tortured and tormented. I kept wishing for a happy ending for him, that he could feel some peace. So, while I am still not sure what I think about this novel, my compassion for an intersexed person have increased.
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I agree that The Hermaphrodite provides a great opportunity to investigate the social construction of gender. By the by, if you haven't yet read Judith Lorber's "The Social Construction of Gender," I highly recommend it. It's an excellent, easily-accessible text. I have a copy if you'd like me to bring it to our Wednesday lunch meeting.
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I too wanted a further commentary on how Laurence felt dressed as a woman. I mean, the burning of the garments and dancing around tells us a lot about how he felt during the experience. I still wanted more. But since you've been discussing gender construction, I wonder if a commentary on "passing as a woman" wouldn't have interrupted the idea that gender is, in fact, socially constructed. Laurence picks up a female persona almost "naturally," making the transition from man to woman seem fluid. Lamenting the attire and affect throughout the process may have indicated that performing "woman" takes more effort on his part than performing "man." Marking the transition as seamless, however, is telling and gives us more interpretative force for the final burning of corsets. Or maybe not. I was just thinking through some ideas.
It is interesting, though, that Laurence has to take lessons for and practice being a woman, although he does not have to do so for being man (although he was acculturated to manhood throughout his childhood).
ReplyDeleteJudith Butler has written extensively about the idea of gender as a performance, which I think connects to the ideas you're talking about Larisa. You might take a look at _Bodies That Matter_,_Gender Trouble_, or _Undoing Gender_.