Stone Butch Blues

Stone Butch Blues

1. Gender identity: It refers to the gender that you feel like regardless of the gender assignation. Therefore, it is shown in by the gender performativity.

   • As a child, Jess naturalized the fact that people did not know her gender, which affected her own perception of her gender identity.
     • “Are you a boy or a girl?” I’d drop my eyes in shame, never questioning their right to ask. (10)
   • Jess' gender abyss
     • "All the girls and women looked pretty much the same, so did all the boys and men. I couldn't find myself among the girls. I had never seen any adult woman who looked like I thought I would when I grew up." (16)
   • Jess was 14 years old when she saw a he-she for the first time
     • "And all the while I was thinking, Oh shit, that’s gonna be me.” (71)
   • Stereotypes among lesbians
     • “maybe it’s a little bit easier for femmes to talk to each other about this stuff than it is for butches" (72)
   • Jess admires Rocco because she is a brave transsexual woman. However, Jess is also afraid of seeing herself in Rocco: I wondered what kind of courage was required to leave the sex you’d always known, or to live so alone" (102)
   • Jess vs Jesse:
 The intake of hormones reflects her need to explore the male gender
     • Jess: She wants to be tender and strong just like Al. That is her "Butch" dreamed identity.
       • Part of being a butch is adopting the “manly” role in the lesbian couple.
         • She tries to project a “manly” and “tough” image. Her motorcycle is a symbol of her butchness
           • When she saw her bike wrecked by jocks, she reflected herself on the bike, implying that society would destroy her for her butchness.
         • Jesse prepares a surprise and compromises with Theresa through the symbol of a ring. This reflects the social construction and custom where the male figure proposes to the female figure for marriage
           • Jesse prepares a celebration for Theresa where she gives her a ring.
       • Affter quitting hormones, she goes back to "not passing" which makes her object of discrimination again.
         • Ex: the drunken man at the subway train almost hit her.
     • Jesse: 
She wants to become "fully a man" to stop the hatred experiences.
       • Jesse’s dream where she is transformed greatly influences her to take this decision.
         • “It was about growing up different. All my life I didn’t want to feel different. But in the dream I liked it and I was with other people who were different like me” (153)
         • “…in the dream it wasn’t about being gay. It was about being a man or a woman. Do you know what I mean? I always feel like I have to prove I’m like other women, but in the dream I didn’t feel” (153)
       • Ben: Ben shows that a man can be both tender and strong
       • Annie:
 She is very homophobic. Jesse rathers go away from that unbearable relationship.
       • Edna: She does not undermine Jesse's decision to the hormones.Yet she is not ready to start a relationship.
       • Frankie's case
         • Jesse cannot understand the butch-butch love
   • At the end, Jess finally begin to accept herself as an individual in order to accept others as well
     • "There's a lot of things I couldn't accept when I was younger, like the fact that there's lots of different ways for butches to be. But now I'm trying to accept people as they are" (308).

2. By Adrián Arias, Maria Cascante, Sofía Jiménez, Bryan Sáenz, Christian Vega

3. Social class:
The difference of backgroud based on financial income which clasifies people depending on what they can and cannot afford.

   • Gender roles are partly determined by social class, in this case working-class
     • "All our fathers went to work in the same plant; all our mothers stayed home." (10)
   • Marked social classes in the school. However, Jess is part of an even smaller minority since she is in a "social abyss"
     • "Almost half the school was white, Jewish, and middle class. The other half was African-American and working class. My family was Jewish and working class. I fell into a lonely social abyss." (39)
   • Unions in plants: livable wages, benefits, job security
     • MEN marginalize butches in the plants
       • "In some plants the men were missing a finger down to the second joint, or a thumb" (79)
     • Sweatshop: Many nationalities and backgrounds
       • Women were united: "The conveyor belt held us together" (81)
     • At the end, Jess recognizes that the LGBT union can change the way in which society thinks, so Duffy tells her that it is the only way to make us understand
       • "I'm not saying we'll live to see some sort of paradise. But just fighting for change makes you stronger. Not hoping for anything will kill you for sure. Take a chance Jess. You're already wondering if the world could change. Try imagining a world worth living in, adn then ask yourself if that isn't worth fighting for. You've come too far to give up on hope, Jess." (328).
   • Butches cannot come to union meetings
     • "No woman in this plant has ever gone higher than a four." (87)
       • Jack and Baney were using Jess in order to deny Leroy the grade-five job.
   • 1973: Theresa got fired of her job at campus. Jesse could not find any jobs and decided to go to the temp jobs office.
     • Men discriminated against Jesse at the temp jobs office
       • “You fucking he-shes. You stole our jobs” (152)
   • The trip to New York
     • Before adapting
       • She practically had no choice but to accept the horrible apartment at a very high price
         • She found two jobs in order to survive in NY.
           • Her vaginal infection almost killed her and people did not take her seriously.
             • Ex: during a fever, she imagines Theresa
     • After adapting
       • Her apartment's improvements reflect her settlement to the city.

4. Gender:
"the social constructions of femininity and masculinity (roles, norms, identities) which are always specific to a given culture..."
-The Perceptive Process

   • Gender roles
   • Gender polarization: Baseball was sacred for the boys. "The thought of playing against girls bordered an heresy" (92)
     • Winning the game was a means to fight against discrimination. " It could’ve turned into a defeat for all the butches on the job" (95)

5. Race: The ethnic backgroud of a person. This difference usually gives privileges to some and rejection to others in certain societies.

   • Racism
     • Against Indians
       • "He said later he couldn't stand by and watch his own flesh and blood be kidnapped by Indians" (8)
     • Against Jews
       • "We raced to the windows and peered out into the dusk. Two teenagers pulled down their pants and mooned us. “Kikes!” they shouted. My father didn’t chase them away; he closed the drapes. After that, we started praying in their bedroom with the shades pulled down. Everyone in my family knew about shame and fear" (14)
     • Against African Americans
       • Incident in school: lunch time with Karla
         • "Miss Moore stopped walking. 'You girls didn’t do anything wrong. You came up against an unspoken rule that needs changing. I just want you both to survive it.'" (43)
         • Difference in punishment between Karla and Jess: "Two weeks? They only suspended me for one!" (47)
   • Grant and Edwin had a fight fueled by Grant’s racism
     • Meg decided not to permit blacks at the Abba’s for a while
     • “Grant said some terrible things about King being killed, about the riots. She wouldn’t stop. So Ed hit her.” (134)
   • 1968: activist movements such as Black Power started gaining power in different places
     • Theresa would bring Jesse papers and pamphlets with information about Black Power and Women’s Liberation Movement.

6. Discrimination: Various forms of oppression.

   • Segregation: Clubs for Black people and clubs for White people
     • “On the East Side,” she said, chalking up. “You mean it’s a Negro club?” “Black,” she said as she whacked a high ball and sunk it. “It’s a Black club.” (55)
   • Against LGBTTQQI community
     • Beating scene: Jess and Ed vs two cops
       • "Speaking for myself, I lost a lot of confidence after that beating. The pain in my rib cage reminded me with every breath how vulnerable I really was." (59)
     • Rape
       • Jess' first rape in school. Violence against diverse people and victim's feeling of guilt
         • "Jess, Bobby and Jeffrey are looking for you.” They all laughed. I felt like what happened was my fault. (41)
       • Jess' rape and humiliation during police raid
         • Whenever anyone was lost in the desert the only image shown was a glaring sun—all the beauty of the desert reduced to that one impression. Staring at that jail light bulb rescued me from watching my own degradation: I just went away (65)
           • Mental blockage during painful moments. She returns to her only happy place.
         • Jess is overwhelmed by pain: "I shook my head slowly-she didn't know" (68)
     • Treatment at store: Jess and drag queens shopping
       • “We’ll just walk around the store trying things on till it’s ready.” “No,” the salesman blurted. “Come back in two hours. Just leave now. Just leave." (61)
     • The cops picked out the most stone butch of them all to destroy with humiliation, a woman everyone said “wore a raincoat in the shower.” (3)
     • Bullying against Jess: kids force Jess to know her sex.
       • “Let’s see how you tinkle,” one of the boys said as he knocked me down and two of the others struggled to pull off my pants and my underpants. I was filled with horror. I couldn't make them stop. The shame of being half-naked before them—the important half—took all the steam out of me." (12)
     • Duffy: Jess gets fired because Ruth referred to Jess as a "she." Jess takes it fine and remembers that something similar occurred with Duffy
       • "Oh Jess. I've had an apology in my mouth for a long time. Can you forgie me for exposing you on the job the way I did?" (326)
       • "Oh I forgave you a while ago. But I'm all excited today. I want to talk to you. I want to see you right this minute" (326).
   • Among LGBTTQQI community
     • After people started fighting for the gay community, butches were rejected from the group
       • "They drove us out, made us feel ashamed of how we looked. They said we were male chauvinist pigs, the enemy. It was women’s hearts they broke." (6)
     • Offenses against butches who do not "perform well": "Hey, femme, you wanna dance with a real butch?" (30)

7. Sexuality

   • Sexual orientation: 
It refers to the gender that you feel attracted to. People who do not comply to the heteronormativity experience rejection and cases of hatred.
     • Oppression towards homosexual people. Jess knows that being a lesbian in her society is bad.
       • When Jess realized she liked women she stated: "I had a new secret, something so terrible I knew I could never tell anyone." (20)
     • Confrontations with other butches
       • "Don't you be looking at my femme, you motherfucker" (76)
     • Theresa: A femme that falls in love with Jesse.
       • Theresa leaves Jesse when she decides she wants to take hormones, leaving Jesse truly heartbroken
         • “I’m a woman, Jess. I love you because you are a woman... I love your butchness. I just don’t want to be some man’s wife, even if that man’s a woman.” (159)
     • Ruth
       • A lonely woman, similar to Jess
         • "We didn't seem to have any of our own places to gather in community, to immerse ourselves in our own ways and our own languages" (270).
         • "I don't want another label either. I just wish we had words so pretty we'd go out of our way to say them out loud" (278).
       • Criticizes the established norms of the patriarchal society in which we live
         • "Oh honey. We've been taught to hate people who are different. It's been pumped into our brains. It keeps everybody fighting each other." (279).
       • The first person that gave flowers to Jess, symbolizing true love and acceptance
         • "They're really pretty Ruth. I've brought women flowers, but no woman ever gave me flowers before. It's a beautiful thing to do" (275).
           • "Jess, I had grown so comfortable with being alone, I forgot how lonely I am underneath. I have friends I love [...]. But I feel so close to you... I can't explain it" (280).
       • After all the hard situations Jess lived through, the protagonist wanted to protect herself from getting very intimate with a person
         • "I didn't know why she had finally decided to invite me in, but suddenly I felt stripped and vulnerable" (275).
       • At the beginning of their relationship, Jess found resistance in Ruth to accept her as she was
         • "Her words and tone angered me. I was sick of being everybody's 'other.' But part of me still needed Ruth's friendship son damn much" (271).
   • Jess' puberty struggle
     • "Just when it seemed like it couldn't get worse I noticed my breasts were growing. Menstruation didn’t bother me. Unless I bled all over myself it was a private thing between me and my body. But breasts!" (19)
   • Edna: Jess wonders "how it would feel to be touched and not be afraid" (101)
     • “by the time we’re old enough to have sex, we’re already too ashamed to be touched." (76)

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