34 pages • 1 hour read
Leslie FeinbergStone Butch Blues
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Gender Fluidity
Even as a child, Jess is aware that she does not neatly conform to a male or female identity. Throughout the book, she uses the term “he-she” to describe herself. In pivotal moments, Jess resists gender categorization that might make her life or relationships simpler. Theresa wants Jess to identity as female in a way that will prompt inclusion in the women’s liberation movement. However, Jess sees that movement as excluding women like her, women who are born female but present themselves to society as masculine or male. Jess also ultimately rejects taking on a completely male identity. Life is less dangerous for Jess when she takes hormones, has her breasts removed, and grows facial hair. But she decides that this is not her true self. Her true self is somewhere in between these two binaries, and she opts to defend that identity no matter what those around her think.
Police Brutality
While many people harass the LGBTQ characters in the book, the most dangerous antagonists are the cops, who raid bars and round up non-gender conforming individuals for simply being out in public. Jess is beaten, raped and robbed by law enforcement officers. She sees fellow butch women and drag queens victimized as well. Charges are never officially filed because the victims have committed no crime. Their only crime, it seems, is dressing and acting in a way that enrages male authority figures. Having to constantly run from the police means that Jess cannot get adequate medical attention in more than one instance. Throughout the book, the cops embody a toxic masculinity (also visible in the football players who rape Jess, and the male teenagers on the subway) of aggression and violence.
The Power of Indigenous Culture
The first positive influence in Jess’s life is the elderly Dineh woman across the hall from Jess’s family, who cares for Jess when Jess’s mother is uninterested in the role. The ring that this neighbor gives Jess to remember her by becomes a valued object, one that connects Jess with feelings of acceptance and love. Later, at a factory job, Jess works with a group of Native American women who also welcome her without question. When they see how much she enjoys their music, they invite her to a powwow and later ask her to start a song that they will join in singing. In the book, Native culture is warm, accepting, andunified around deeply-held values.
