Women, much like race and homosexuality, have been fighting through oppression for years. As women, we did not earn the right to vote until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. African Americans have struggled through slavery and discrimination. The Chicano culture has had to deal with their culture being shunned aside. Race is still an issue in present day. Lately, there have been many gay rights movements such as the quest for same-sex marriage. Celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are comfortable enough about their sexuality, they are public about it. Recently, Ricky Martin came out too. Using Cherrie Moraga’s essay, From a Long Line of Vendidas: Chicanas and Feminism, Nella Larsen’s novel Passing, and a variety of other readings, race and homosexuality will be explored in that, while they may have many similarities, being a homosexual, and a person of a different race face heterosexism in various ways.
In Cherrie Moraga’s From a Long Line of Vendidas: Chicanas and Feminism, Moraga describes the life of a Chicana, a Chicana feminist, as well as a homosexual Chicana— basically a combination in all three. She states that the Chicano culture is male dominated, that “the boys are different” (Moraga 36) and that “the daughter must constantly earn the mother’s love” whereas “the son—he gets her love for free” (Moraga 37). Moraga does go on to say she does not “mean to imply that women need to have men around to feel at home in [her] culture is influenced by men” (Moraga 45). Men are the ones who theoretically have the better jobs, specifically white men. In La Chicana and the Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender by Irene Blea, Blea suggests that “the most valued and powerful persons in society are white Anglo men, followed by white females. Men of color are less valued than white females, while minority females of color are the least valued of all” (Blea 147).
Moraga goes on to tell the tale of La Malinche which basically boils down to women fucking a white man, specifically one who is considered to be destroying one’s culture. Any Chicana having sexual intercourse with a white man is a way of turning her back on her culture. Moraga agrees that Chicana women are stigmatized as sexual persons because of La Malinche. For a Chicana to be a feminist is another way of turning her back on her culture yet Moraga contests that just because one is critical about their own culture does not mean they are betraying it. Critiquing one’s own culture may seem “easiest” in that we live and breathe it everyday. There are norms for a Chicana, just like any other race, that are to be followed, and anything else would be considered social deviance, and to be more stigmatized as a Chicana is to be a lesbian Chicana. As Moraga points out, “homosexuality does not pose a great threat to society. Male homosexuality has always been a ‘tolerated’ aspect of Mexican/Chicano society, as long as it remains ‘fringe’… but lesbianism, in any form, [as well as] male homosexuality which openly avows both the sexual and emotional elements of the bong, challenges the very foundation of familia” (Moraga 41). Sonia Lopez backs up Moraga’s belief that homosexuality is a white-man’s disease inflicted upon Third World Peoples, saying, “lesbianism is not only a white thing, but an insult to be avoided at all costs” (Moraga 42). As a Chicana, being a lesbian is seen as an act of “self-betrayal” when a woman takes control of her sexual destiny and she is also considered a “traitor to her race” contributing to the ever so depleting race of Chicana’s.
In Nella Larsen’s Passing, Larsen “explores the cultural identity and psychological positioning of modern black individuals unmarked by difference from whites” (Larsen ix). In this particular novel, Larsen uses two light-skinned characters to explain the concept of those of African American heritage “pass” into white culture. The concept of passing is when one is classified as one race, yet chooses to identify with another race. In “passing” as white, they are “free” African Americans with limitations. As women, I am sure they do not intend to uphold the tradition of being a working woman, in that white women do not work. Yet there are those who can point out someone who is “passing” much like at the dance.
Irene Redfield is married to a dark-skinned man, yet she likes to indulge herself in activities that stem from white culture; i.e. hosting parties (where white people do attend), and having tea in public places where one would not catch a person of color who is not “passing.” Yet, she still remains an active part of the African American community; she refuses to completely pass therefore it can be said she only passes into the white culture to obtain the benefits of being white.
Clare Kendry is married to a wealthy, racist white man who knows nothing of Clare’s African American heritage. Clare disappeared from home when she was able to recognize that she was different then the darker-skinned brothers and sisters of her culture, and she never looked back, severing all ties to her past. It was not until she ran into Irene, who was a childhood friend, while out to tea did she ever think about walking the line of passing as opposed to be completely over it. Clare hides her race altogether from society, so when she was pregnant with her daughter Margery, she was terrified “for fear that she might be dark” but was elated when she was born and was light skinned enough to pass, concluding “I’ll never risk it again. Never! The strain is simply too—too hellish” (Larsen 36). Even though Clare renounces her African American heritage, she cannot help but be amazed at it. Clare attends the Negro Welfare League dance where white men and black men were present, and she dances with Ralph Hazelton who is “dark, with gleaming eyes, like a moonlit night” (Larsen 76). Clare permanently passes into white culture, acting as a tourist to her own African American culture. I consider Clare to be manipulative because she makes Irene feel the need to include her in activities such as the NWL dance. She is also a tease, and I am not talking about being gender specific, for she flirts with the man who “drops her off” at the Drayton (which I believe is her husband John Bellew) where she gives him a “peculiar caressing smile” (Larsen14), as well as the [male] waiter at the Drayton where Clare gives “an odd sort of smile…a shade provocative for a waiter” (Larsen 15). As far as women go, as a general rule, I think we flirt with life as a way to gain something we desire. Women crave fashion, so as a general rule, we dress to impress… other women. When we are being “watched” much like Irene was by Clare at the Drayton, we do what Irene does; “Feeling her colour heighten under the continued inspection, she slid her eyes down. What, she wondered, could be the reason for such persistent attention? Had she, in her haste in the taxi, put her hat on backwards? Perhaps there was a streak of powder somewhere on her face. Something wrong with her dress?” (Larsen 15), we fix ourselves. It is easy how one can be confused with whether or not one is being flirted with sexually, or in the sense to get their way, or just in general kindness.
In reference to Clare being more into “passing” than Irene is given in a discussion they have while out to tea. “‘You see, Clare, I’ve everything I want. Except, perhaps, a little more money.’ At that Clare laughed. ‘Of course,’ she declared, ‘that’s what everybody wants, just a little more money, even the people who have it. And I must say I don’t blame them. Money’s awfully nice to have. In fact, all things considered, I think, ‘Rene, that it’s even worth the price’” (Larsen 28) of passing. Moraga contends that if women marry outside their Chicana culture, she is turning her back on her race, whereas a Chicano can marry a white woman to climb the totem pole.
There are several sexual references in Passing between Clare and Irene that may deem them lesbians of color; if nothing else, the accusation of Irene being a lesbian of color. Irene’s marriage to Brian is flawed; they rarely have sex and Brian makes references to Brazil which may signify sexual freedom. Yet, sexual intercourse then is not what it is like present day and Elizabeth Roberts in A Woman’s Place: An Oral History of Working-Class Women 1890-1940 notes that “sexual intercourse was regarded as necessary for the procreation of children or as an activity indulged by men for their own pleasure, but it was never discussed in the evidence as something which could give mutual happiness.. No hint was ever made that women might have enjoyed sex… Many women regarded sex as something distasteful and unpleasant” (Roberts 84). It is not to easy to tell about Clare’s marriage, other than it is built off of lie after lie because she refuses to reveal to Mr. Bellew her true identity. When Clare comes along, Irene is a bit perturbed by her, but cannot seem to stay away. The way Irene describes Clare inclines me to believe that Irene is miserably attracted to her, and does not even know it. For example, in her first encounter with Clare Irene describes her as “an attractive-looking woman, with those dark, almost black, eyes and that wide mouth like a scarlet flower against the ivory of her skin. Nice clothes too” (Larsen 14). A few pages later, Irene continues to describe Clare while also describing Clare’s ability to “pass” saying, “She herself had always had it. Just as she’d always had that pale gold hair, which, unsheared still, was drawn loosely back from a broad brow, partly hidden by the small close hat. Her lips, painted a brilliant geranium-red, were sweet and sensitive and a little obstinate. A tempting mouth… the ivory skin had a peculiar soft luster. And the eyes were magnificent! Dark, sometimes absolutely black, always luminous, and set in long, black lashes. Arresting eyes, slow and mesmeric, and with, for all their warmth, something withdrawn and secret about them…there was something about them something exotic” (Larsen 28). As far as eyes are concerned, they tend to get people in trouble. I, for one, have been accused of “eye-fucking” but I am not too sure if I ever really have. Sure, they are the key to the soul, but like Clare, they hide some secrets. Irene refers to Clare having a “husky voice” which can be deemed a sign of masculinity, regardless of sexual orientation. Yet, even though Irene wants to avoid Clare, especially in her statement “she was through with Clare Kendry” (Larsen 31), getting over someone, especially if you are intensely attracted to them, is not that easy. A time later, as Irene reflects on the letter Clare has sent to her, the reader gets the sense that Irene misses Clare because she says, “laying it aside, she regarded with an astonishment that had in it a mild degree of amusement the violence of the feelings which it stirred in her” (Larsen 51). This may also foreshadow the killing/suicide of Clare from Irene.
Yet, Clare is not all sweet and innocent when it comes to her sexual passes towards Irene; deemed sexual or just typical woman-woman interaction. An instance is when Clare is trying to get Irene to come to another get-together, as they part ways Clare says, “I’ll spend every minute of the time from now on looking forward to seeing you again” (Larsen 30). I understand, as women we do have certain ways we deal with other women. We call each other “pet names” such as “sweetheart,” “dear,” “love,” yet I regard those as terms of endearment. I often tell my friends, who are girls, that I “miss their face and need to see it a.s.a.p” but something about Clare saying, “if you could know how glad, how excitingly happy, I was to meet you and how I ached to see more of you… my love to you always and always” (Larsen 46) is just a little too “friendly.” There are three sentences in this letter from Clare to Irene that make me believe that Clare is coming out of the closet as well; “your way may be the wiser and infinitely happier one. I’m not sure just now. At least not so sure as I have been” (Larsen 47). Yet, Clare has also caught Irene in the sense that Irene is a lesbian. Perhaps my favorite scene in the novel, in regards to Irene and Clare being lovers, is when Clare is describing when she would go to the post office and wait for Irene’s letter, one that would never come, and that the post office was probably thinking that Clare was involved in some love-affair and was being stood up by a man, when in fact, it was really a woman.
Frieda Smith would be a great role model for Irene had Irene been around when her speech, “Frieda Smith Tells It Like It Is” was given in 1971. Irene is “passing” into the white culture to gain its benefits, which very well may include the, I guess one could say, “acceptable” version of homosexuality because she would be considered white. Smith says “if you aspire to a managerial or professional position, you have two choices: a life devoid of love and sex (and if you are single, this often excludes heterosexual sex), or a life in the closet living in constant fear of detection and loss of the position regardless of the performance of your work” (1971). Ellen DeGeneres would also be a great role model because she backs up Smith’s statement; Ellen was what many would consider, at the peak of her career when she came out and she faced heavy criticism. Her current partner, Portia de Rossi, remembers seeing Ellen come out, and the scrutiny she faced, and de Rossi knew in some way she was different. Gradually, modern society “accepted” it. I pick on Ellen because I think she is a stand-up woman; literally, I love her comedy, yet she is also of Anglo heritage.
To be a lesbian of color, let alone of African American heritage, in the 1920s was unacceptable, “passing” or not. Like Moraga explains about lesbianism is a “white-man’s disease”, Irene sees her homosexuality as a disease, something she must hide from and from the world. Just as in the Chicana culture Moraga explains about preserving the family, Irene wants to remain closeted to do just that; avoid shame to her and her family. Yet, Cherrie Moraga has suffered her share of defeats in the Chicana community for being a lesbian, and she comes flat out saying, “I am a Chicana lesbian. My own particular relationship to being a sexual person; and a radical stand in direct contradiction to, and in violation of, the woman I was raised to be” (Moraga 43). If Moraga were to know the story between Irene and Clare, she would probably say “maybe like me they now feel they have little to lose” as well as talk about how Irene is “miserably attracted to women and fighting it” (Moraga 42). Of the Feminist Movement, Moraga says that it tried to convince her that “lesbian sexuality was naturally different than heterosexual sexuality” (Moraga 44). Kurt Hiller wrote a speech entitled “Appeal to the Second International Congress for Sexual Reform on Behalf of an Oppressed Human Variety” where he suggests at homosexuals are “outlawed because their feeling and acts are ‘contrary to nature.’ However, their feelings and acts are rooted in their constitution, components of their character, something dictated to them by nature…we are obligated to recognize this nature as being indeed perfectly natural—shocking, perhaps, but nothing that deserves to be either denied or defamed… Same-sex love is not a mockery of nature, but rather nature at play; and anyone who maintains the contrary—that love is intended to serve the propagation of the species, that homosexual or heterosexual potency is squandered on goals other than procreation—fails to consider the superabundance with which Nature in all her largesse, wastes” (1928). Yet, Moraga also claims the Feminist Movement said that “reaching sexual ecstasy with a woman lover would never involve any kind of power struggle. Women were different” (Moraga 44) and yet, there was a power struggle in her own bedroom; a taking turns of sort as the dominant being.
It could also be argued that perhaps Clare and Irene are only lesbians because they have passed into the white culture; the dominant culture. It may not necessarily be to gain professional benefits, but it was to gain others. According to Moraga, “white feminists confine themselves to in describing sexuality as based in white-rooted interpretations of dominance, submission, power-exchange, etc. Although they are certainly part of the psychosexual lives of women of color, these boundaries would have to expand” (Moraga 45) to fit any culture. Homosexuals just want to have the right to their own feelings, to love, to own their own bodies, to be people in general, and heterosexism takes that away by stigmatizing culture and sexual orientation.
In conclusion, the similarities between the Chicana culture, as well as the “passing” culture of African Americans are the heterosexism they face. While Chicanas face harsher criticism from their very culture, “passing” African Americans need to feel more feared in that they have already been racially stigmatized when they were enslaved. Sure, the Chicano culture had enslavements, yet they also enslaved African Americans as well. Women are desirable, perhaps even more desirable than a man. Men have always been the dominant culture; from military leaders, to presidents, to CEO’s of small, family owned business. It was not until, perhaps, the 1990s before women became recognized as part of a dominant species, and even now, we are still looked down upon as we climb corporate ladders, rise in politics, and fight our oppression. We see the oppression only because history tells it to us, yet, sitting here, I only feel oppressed because I do it to myself. Sure money constraints, but my limitations, as far as I am concerned, are limitless; I just choose to shy away, to avoid the spotlight. There are many women activists out there, fighting for the oppression of women like me, and are not afraid to admit it.
