Christine J. Grossman (Baxter, Minnesota): Staging Compulsory Heterosexuality: Dramatic Depictions of Cultural Treason Against the Homosexual Gender.

In Angels in America, Tony Kushner’s gay activism clarifies via character Joe, a married Mormon confronting his sexuality in New York. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Brick refuses to consider that a college friendship with a man might harbor homosexual undertones. Conversely, Joe seems resigned to the “continuing, determinative importance” his interest in male-male interactions have for him. These two characters present men who may be male-identified. Examination of the male-identified man theme in two separate topic treatments reveals significant changes in frankness degrees concerning homoerotic subjects, and cases of men interested in same-sex social relations, as well as how reactions to disclosure of such interest to families of origin creates a sense of betrayal of the homosexual by the family. Brick can’t stand to think of his friendship with Skipper as anything but “pure”; Joe frets over the effect that acting upon his homoerotic desires will have upon Harper’s life. Joe stays with Harper out of responsibility; Brick stays with Maggie out of a desire to counter accusations of arrested development. Neither man has the option of pursuing the same-sex friendships that clearly compel both. Adrienne Rich argues that compulsory heterosexuality is harmful to women but it’s also true that compulsory mixed-gender relations curtail men’s lives, such as Joe and Brick demonstrate. This construct presents the ultimate cultural betrayal with respect to gender: denial to real people of their very genuine innate needs.


Surapeepan Chatraporn (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand): From Whore to Heroine: Deconstructing the Myth of the Fallen Woman and Redefining Female Sexuality in Contemporary Popular Fiction.

The fallen woman, long existent in patriarchal discourse and intensified by Victorian sexual ethics, succumbs to seduction or sensual desires, suffers social condemnation and ostracism, and eventually dies, either shamelessly or repentantly. The questions of female sexuality and feminine virtues are dealt with in The Great Gatsby, Daisy Miller, and The Awakening. Daisy Buchanan, Jordan, and Myrtle, all three sexually transgressive women, are punished, with Myrtle, the most sexually aggressive, being subjected to an outrageous death penalty. Daisy Miller, upon engaging in acts of self-presentation and female appropriation of male space, undergoes social disapprobation, and dies an untimely death. Edna, though boldly adopting a single sexual standard for both men and women and awakening to life’s independence and sexual freedom, eventually realizes there is no space for her and submerges herself in the ocean. In contrast, the recent contemporary narrative pattern deconstructs the myth of the fallen woman and allows the fallen woman to live and prosper. The fallen woman, traditionally a secondary character who is considered a threat to the virtuous heroine, emerges as a major or central character with a revolutionary power that both conquers and heals. Like Water for Chocolate, Chocolat, and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café acknowledge female mobility and sexual freedom, and appropriate space hitherto denied to fallen women. Eva Bates and Gertrudis, satiating female sexual desires and representing eroticized female bodies, overturn the traditional narrative of falling and dying by becoming competent and worthy members of the society. Tita and Vianne are central heroines who challenge the cult of womanhood, embody the sexualized New Woman, and display strength and personal power, making them pillars of their communities.


Xochitl E. Shuru (Ursinus College, Pennsylvania): Parteras, curanderas, brujas: estorias hispanas.

In the recent article, “Do We Still Need Women’s History” published in The Chronicle of Higher Education Alice Kessler-Harris explains the “tension between women and gender”. Kessler-Harris brings to light the transformation from Women Studies of the early 70’s to the current Gender and Women Studies label. She indicates that as a direct result of scholars engaged in issues of women studies, feminist journals such as Feminist Studies and Signs were established. I argue however, that a shift in emphasis from women’s history to gender’s history continues to ignore the importance of Hispana history, as can be seeing by the number of “Hispanic” women writers included in such journals. The need for not only a merely a name change but a more inclusive and diverse cultural approach in studying oral histories is imperative. Representatives of hispanas oral histories, specifically in New Mexico are found in the text edited by Tey Diana Rebolledo and María Teresa Márquez. Women’s Tales from the New Mexico WPA: La Diabla a Pie not only recognizes hispano oral histories, neglected voices of the “malas mujeres” but also contests the status-quo definition of “Women’s History”. Via estorias hispanas Rebolledo and Márquez present for the first time personal and communal storytelling experiences of parteras, curanderas and brujas, that is women who bring life, help maintain life, and also end it. Therefore, as reflected in the title, La Diabla is empowered by her personal voice, personal history and her gender.