when we celebrate our differences. Societal labels concerning gender and sex segregate even those who face similar discrimination. Stone Butch Blues, written by activist Leslie Feinberg, tells of Jess Goldberg who is characterized by the 1960 era by a powerful simple question: “what are you?” (Feinberg 12) Nobody, not even herself, has a clear answer. Jess is a butch female to her friends, but either a disgraceful female or respected male to coworkers and family. She is a calming force to those close
"Stone Butch Blues" by Leslie Feinberg is a semi-autobiographical novel that follows the life of Jess Goldberg, a working-class butch lesbian who grew up in Buffalo, NewYork in the 1950s and 60s. The story takes place during a time when LGBTQ+ individuals were largely invisible in mainstream society and faced significant discrimination and violence. At that time, several significant historical events were taking place in the United States that were relevant to Jess's story. One of the most significant
Community plays a very large role in Leslie Feinberg’s “Stone Butch Blues”. Jess, the main character of the novel struggles with her gender identity throughout the novel, trying to fit societal norms as well as the norms set within the butch/femme community. She also struggles with her sexuality, and finds both acceptance and denial within the gay community. Jess deals with hatred and pain from others throughout the novel. From the beginning she does not fit other people's ideal of what a girl should
In the novel Stone Butch Blue by Leslie Feinberg, Jess experiences intersubjectivity in hir relationships with hir femme lover, Theresa, and this makes a difference in how ze views homophobia. In this paper, I will be using the pronouns “ze, hir, hirs”, when referring to Jess because there is no clear preferred gender pronoun for Jess and Leslie Feinberg used these pronouns for hirself. Ze’s relationship with Theresa shaped hir views on homophobia. As ze transitions, hir multiple subjectivities change
In Stone Butch Blues, Jess struggles with her identity as a butch lesbian, while simultaneously facing prejudice and violence from biased people around her. As she is physically and mentally violated, she shields herself from the world by adopting a stony demeanor. Relatedly, Roshaya Rodness investigates the significance of stone in her article, “Hard Road Ahead: Stone’s Queer Agency in Stone Butch Blues”. Out of many of stone’s properties, protection is one of the most important. After being arrested
I chose the Stone Butch Blues book by Leslie Feinberg because I want to learn about the potential community I will be working for. As a person that aspires to become a school social worker, I feel that learning about the LGBT community is very important. As it is depicted in Stone Butch Blues schools are one of the main institutes that impacts a child’s development and where they often discover who they are. It is in schools and at home that children start being molded into what society deems appropriate
“Warm memories flooded me: Butch friends, drag queens' confidants, femme, lovers. I couldn’t find them now. I was alone at this crossroads. I couldn’t bring myself to sink the needle into my thigh. Then I pictured my Norton (motorcycle), all smashed to smithereens in the parking lot. I stabbed my thigh with the needle and injected the hormone. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.” Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (Pg 178) I began with this quote to show it can be challenging for the lesbian
Stone Butch Blues is a novel of autobiographical fiction based on the author, Leslie Feinberg’s life.The story is full of heartbreaking struggles of gender, sexuality, the law, abuse, and finding home in a world where being yourself is against the law and dangerous. The book begins with the main character, Jess, as a teenage butch lesbian in the 1960s when being gay, and dressing in what were considered “Men’s clothing” were not only illegal, but behaviors that opened the character up to harassment
Stone Butch Blues is a novel written by LGBT activist Leslie Feinberg about Jess Goldberg, a young girl growing up in pre-stonewall America. The novel follows Jess’s from her early life as a child, all the way into adult life. Jess realized very earl1y on that she is fundamentally different from the girls around her in school, home life, etc. These differences are what makes her life so difficult, with her parents and other authority figures constantly trying to “fix” her differences and mold
for acceptance from society. Individuals believe they have the right to perform violence against these transgender women because of their gender identity. For example, in the novel Stone Butch Blues, Jess Goldberg is physically a women but prefers to live life as a male. Since Jess chooses to live life as a male, or butch, she is frequently a target of policemen and other individuals because of her identity. The society views Jess as a criminal because during the 1960’s homosexuality was illegal and
Butch Please: The Dichotomy of the Butch-Femme (1940-1970) The role of butch-femme lesbians has shifted from the 1940s to 1970s, though what has remained constant is dichotomy of the masculine and feminine. The existence of butch-femme lesbians exists today, though very differently from the original of lesbian bar culture of the 1940s. The phases of butch-femme coexist with other important aspects of history, such as the blue-collar working class expectations, women’s rights in World War II, Second
The Gilded Age. The Progressive Era. The Roaring Twenties. The Space Race. The Reagan Era. What all five of these time periods have in common is that they were each diverse and defining movements that shaped American history as it is known today. In a similar way, the Romantic Age immensely affected, not just the literature of the time, but life as well in England; it brought a more adventurous, personal, and imaginative approach to both. The poetry written at this time were all strikingly similar
The story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a short story of horror and realism. Residents of a small New England town come together in the town square every year and hold their annual lottery. The head of each household goes up and pulls out a slip of paper from the sacred black box. The person who pulls out a slip of paper with a black dot, wins the lottery. This time around the Hutchinsons were the family who pulled out the black dot and one of the family members gets the chance to win the
to hear the branches rustling as the wind whistles past his ears. He trips over and his face hits the mix of dead leaves, dirt, dead bugs and sharp twigs. As he lays on the ground he looks to his right and sees an almost illuminating, crisp white stone, which roughly resembles the silhouette of a skull, but with an oddly shaped depression on the left side. He starts to stand up as he covers his hand with his black jacket sleeve as he wipes his face, to free it from the filth. And he used his filth
Imagine a woman, beautiful and sweet and very humble. She comes from a poor family, but has rich qualities. Does this sound like an Iraqi lady? Cinderella is a story of a beautiful young lady that is taken advantage of by her father’s new wife and her stepsisters. But in the end, she gets all of her wishes with the help of a fairy godmother and lives happily ever after. That is the French Version. In the Iraqi tale, the stepmother is nice at first, but becomes jealous of the child’s beauty. The godmother
The story “Me And Earl And The Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The time setting is in the year 2011 nearing the end of the school year and main characters, Gregory Gaines, Earl Jackson, and Rachel Kushner are all in their senior year at Benson High School. The setting differentiates the character’s personality by separating them by social class. Author illustrates Rachel and Gregory living in a middle class home in a quiet neighborhood in the town area they live
Imagine that everyone abandoned and no one liked you, think about that no one cared for you or talked to you. Wouldn 't you want people people to talk to you, or love you. That’s what Moui felted like in the movie “Moana.” Moui was a mortal like us, but his parents abandoned him and left him. Then the gods took care of him then abandoned him too. Moui had nobody to love him or talk to. He wanted to do something to amazed man and make them love him and worship him. In the film, “Moana,” the story
emotion and the mind. In today’s classification, it is a semi-precious stone, but the ancient considered it on the same level as gold and diamonds, even referring to it as a “Gem of Fire”. Ever since the Gregorian calendar existed, it has been associated with the month of February, which happens to be the month I was born. February, traditionally, was dedicated by the Romans to Neptune, a god of the water and ocean, whose sacred stone was Amethyst. It is because of this that we later labeled Amethyst
The Grimm Brother’s “Rapunzel” is arguably the best-known version of the classic story after the Disney version. As fairytales go, Rapunzel does not stray too far from the stereotypical representations of female characters, featuring the good mother, the misrepresented evil witch of a stepmother and the passive princess. Placed into their boxes, and never allowed to change the course of their storyline, these women are denied any form of activity or satisfaction unless their male counterpart allows
piece in its own work. Narmer Palette represents the two sides of kingdoms whereas, the Victory Steel of Naram-Sin represents the upper and lower and the all of the above which is God Sun above the mountain. These arts are greatly designed and the stones which were used lasts long for