mothwing | 50 book challenge

I absolutely loved Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and I'll try to get hold of some of his story collections ASAP. Seems like other people like him, too, though, all the books at my library are out.

26.

Homoplot - The Coming-Out Story and Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Identity, by Esther Saxey.
I hate coming out stories, and this book raises a few very interesting and critical issues about the genre. So far it's very interesting.

They could be doing so much good. They are about the struggle to find identity, which is one of the number one issues in popular fiction, they address desires and traits which still have connotations of decadence and deviation, they can even be told through ubiquitous love-plots while making neat statements about current politics and LGBT issues. Still, I fear that for many people, the coming-out story is THE essential plot of non-heterosexual narratives, and gives birth to a number of unhelpful and norm-enforcing stereotypes rather than offering new insights.

Many fictional coming-out stories seem to be intent on establishing a plot, a script for an important part in the development of non-heterosexual people. While this is good, I don't t hink that the way this is achieved is particularly helpful, as the stories that result in this often conform incredibly to the patterns that have been established in love stories throughout the centuries and serve to cement those rather than to challenge norms which make life and the coming-to-terms with this part of identity difficult.

While the subject-matter implies that these books are written primarily for a homosexual audience, I very often got the feeling that the set-up, the plot and the resulting denouement are addressed rather to a heterosexual audience. The end, which often has the character find love, invariably gives the all-clear to heterosexual and homosexual readers alike: It's alright. They may be gay, but they are still Completely Normal People who are just like Romeo and Juliet. Aw. Everything is usually over once the main character has "come out" and is able to maintain a relationship that is exactly like a heterosexual one, if it weren't for the same-sex partner.

While the struggle with homosexuality in these stories is usually resolved once the often adolescent character has either been killed (social criticism) or found love (love heals all), it is often situated in the realms of confused adolescence only and stops once the character has found their first requited love and settled in a partnership. I have problems with this kind of plot for several reasons.

Firstly, because it shows that a happy relationship can heal all wounds, as though being rejected by the entirety of society, all your friends and your neighbours suddenly no longer stands in the way of becoming a happy person because one person loves you. This is not realistic and seems to shift the responsibility form the unhelpful heteronormative structures that we are all part of to the individual. If love can make people happy, it is no longer the responsibility of society to do their part. While this motif of the society as jealous klaffer or merker of the lovers has been very popular since the times of the Minne, I doubt that the lovers defying them and finding happiness in love in spite of them is a helpful ending for such a story. While it is of course true that individuals have to learn to accept themselves as no one else can do it for them, I resent the status that romantic love has for this. Love is not a cure for self-doubt or an unhealthy environment, although it does help.
While they do offer an account of individual fates, individual stories and couples, instead of addressing problems and complications and challenging the structures responsible for these, they rather confirm and cement both heterosexual mating rituals as well as heteronormativity in general. Very often the situation, language and roles of a heterosexual couple somehow find their way into the story, reinforcing stereotypes and norms.

Secondly, identity formation and struggles with identity do not miraculously stop upon reaching the end of puberty. Nor are these kinds of stories likely to be helpful for middle-aged non-heterosexuals in denial of their orientation. Also, the fact that they are set in the character's adolescence also seems to imply that it is a part of teenage struggles only rather than something which does not stop being a struggle once the character leaves puberty. For heterosexuals, the fact that many of these stories are set in adolescence also takes away some of the stories weight and relevancy, as teenage unhappiness is common, not necessarily alarming part of growing up.
Coming out stories often reduce the difficulties individuals face when coming to terms with the fact that they are not part of the norm for whatever reasons to one single trait only. The underlying question of coming-out stories is often "What is wrong with me? Why am I not normal?", and the answer is invariably "Thank god, now I know that it is all because I am homosexual!" - which is of course a gross oversimplification of a very difficult struggle for identity or accepting a part of one's identity. I'd argue that it is never that easy, that being a lonely, unhappy outsider, as many of the homosexuals are portrayed as, is never a matter of "only" one trait - and of course, not all homosexuals are automatically also lonely and unhappy.

Thirdly, the stories seem to imply that once the character has come to terms with their sexual orientation, everything is solved. Not so. Very often, problems begin with a coming out, they don't end with it. Coming-out stories offer a version of non-heterosexual reality that is about as realistic as a Jane Austen novel is as an account for married life.

Instead of coming-out stories, I wish they wouldn't stop there, I wish they would take it further, and instead of dressing this identity struggle into one of the ubiquitous love plots, there was more variety, stories that challenge and redefine norms for the characters, find an own voice instead of replaying structures and plots that have been used ad nauseam, plots whose structure is essentially heterosexist.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

mariebernadette.livejournal.com

I was browsing your 50 book challenge posts so far and I'm definitely grabbing all the Nick Hornby at the library. I've only read two so far, How to Be Good and About a Boy (the only ones that were in at the time) and I've enjoyed his wry humor in his short story readings on a radio show that airs here.

From:

mothwing.livejournal.com

Nick Hornby is absolutely amazing. I don't doubt that you'll like his other books, if you liked How to Be Good and About a Boy!

Also, envy for having radio shows that feature his short stories!
Do you think that there is some way to access that station online? Anything that features readings sounds worth looking into.

From:

mariebernadette.livejournal.com

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Search.aspx?searchFor=Nick%20Hornby

I think you'll like the soccer story. Hopefully these will allow you to hear it streaming. On iTunes, This American Life shows are available for free for download on mp3 players but I'm not sure how that works in other countries. I'm also a big fan of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me (a kind of sort of current events game show).

From:

mothwing.livejournal.com

Ooooh, shiny. Thanks for the link!

From:

count-tygath.livejournal.com

Hey there!

This is a little off-topic, hun, but could you please head over to my "place" for a sec once you're online and check here next? Had a lil' question for you there concerning a very odd mail I received yesterday and I just wanted to know if you did, too... You'll know what this is about once you read my entry. Thx a lot. It's nothing, it's just worrying little me, that's all. ;)

*hugs*