Does Your Mama Know About Me Analysis

The world has changed dramatically in the last century, especially in terms of homosexuality and its acceptance by society. In 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay marriage, followed slowly by others before becoming legal nationwide, June 26, 2015. Only five years ago the United States military repealed their nearly two decades old, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, allowing service members to openly express their sexuality. These changes would tend to indicate that Radclyffe Hall’s, The Well of Loneliness, would be an obsolete literary work, however, this is a highly inaccurate assumption. True, the aspects of gender roles have largely changed since 1928, women are no longer expected to remain at home, to tend to the children

“At the beginning of the twentieth century, a homosexual subculture, uniquely Afro-American in substance, began to take shape in New York’s Harlem. Throughout the so- called Harlem Renaissance period, roughly 1920 to 1935, black lesbians and gay men were meeting each other [on] street corners, socializing in cabarets and rent parties, and worshiping in church on Sundays, creating a language, a social structure, and a complex network of institutions.” Richard Bruce Nugent, who was considered the “perfumed orchid of the New Negro Movement” said, “You did what you wanted to. Nobody was in the closet. There wasn’t any closet.”

In the essay by Judith Butler, Besides Oneself: On the Limits of Sexual Autonomy, she describes the social norms of society slowly changing and designing new social norms of society by the awareness of Gays,

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, society wasn’t the most accepting of places for people who were different from the “social norms”. Now I know, people today still struggle with trying to fit in and be “normal” but it was different. Being a gay man living in San Fransisco at the time, which had a large gay population, Richard Rodriguez had a hard time dealing with the discrimination he faced. Richard Rodriguez was an American journalist who wrote and published a memoir about his life as a gay man. In October of 1990, Rodriguez published his memoir “Late Victorians” in Harper’s Magazine, a critically acclaimed publication of the time. In his memoir, Rodriguez describes what it was like to realize he was gay and watch as the country changed to become a more accepting place. He does this by setting up how things can change and then explaining the actual ways things change for the gay population.

To expand on the intricacy of the speaker’s life, symbolism is applied to showcase the oppression her ancestors etched on her quilt were facing for their “burnt umber pride” and “ochre gentleness” (39-40). Once again, the theme of absence is introduced as there is a sense of separation among the Native American culture as their innocent souls are forced onto reservations and taken away from their families. This prolonged cruelty and unjust treatment can be advocated when the speaker explains how her Meema “must have dreamed about Mama when the dancing was over: a lanky girl trailing after her father through his Oklahoma

Life for most homosexuals during the first half of the Twentieth century was one of hiding, being ever so careful to not give away their true feelings and predilections. Although the 1920s saw a brief moment of openness in American society, that was quickly destroyed with the progress of the Cold War, and by default, that of McCarthyism. The homosexuals of the 50s “felt the heavy weight of medical prejudice, police harassment and church condemnation … [and] were not able to challenge these authorities.” They were constantly battered, both physically and emotionally, by the society that surrounded them. The very mention or rumor of one’s homosexuality could lead to the loss of their family, their livelihood and, in some cases, their

The articles by Roderick Ferguson (2004) in his book literally highlights the regulation that established sociological schools of thought impose upon the ‘queer people of color,’ or anyone who is different in terms of sexual orientation and non-white. In the very early part of the book, Ferguson depicts the imagery of a black drag-queen prostitute from Marlon Riggs’ ‘Tongues Untied.’ He goes on to describe the way capitalism, in general, and the American system in particular has conveniently excluded many like her – people of alternative sexual preferences with both African American culture and Leftist Liberal thought rooted in the heterogeneity. (Ferguson, 2004, p. 3). It is at this point that through the work of Chandan Reddy, Ferguson reminds the reader that the core of Leftist-Liberal Marxist thought revolves around the abolishment of race, gender and sexuality.

Throughout the 1950’s, the United States belonged to the Leave It To Beaver era. Families were structured around a strong, hard working father and a wonderful homemaker mother. Children were brought up with solid ideologies on what society expects from them and were warned about living a different and dangerous life. Only one-year separates Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room from there publishing dates during this decade of unwavering beliefs. These texts were seen as extremely controversial during their time due to their themes of homosexuality. Sexual orientation was an awkward topic during such a “to the book” time period and these texts pushed the limits, making them remarkable and memorable works. Both Tennessee Williams and James Baldwin explore the panic men experience while trying to comprehend what sexual orientation they belong to and highlight the masculine gay man. These texts also examine the woman’s role in the mist of it all.

This speaker is derived from Essex Hemphill, given their shared skin color and sexual preference, but can be compared to the lives of many people. Specifically, this poem is about the speaker’s struggles of being a gay man. The feelings the speaker has in his situation can be related to countless other situations as well. In this society, past, present, and future, people will be judged, so many will hold themselves back to avoid judgment. Essex Hemphill constructed a speaker that summarizes a complicated situation. He is prompted to conceal himself, feel utterly miserable in his life, but still looks completely fine on the outside. Overall, the speaker feels the need to secrete himself in order to avoid the discrimination of his loved ones. In all of this the speaker becomes miserable, also hides this, and illustrates a satisfied

“Sex was something mysterious which happened to married couples and Homosexuality was never mentioned; my mother told me my father did not believe it existed at all ‘until he joined the army’. As a child, I was warned about talking to ‘strange men’, without any real idea what this meant. I was left to find out for myself what it was all about.” Mike Newman, who was a child during the 1950s America recalls how homosexuality was perceived during the post-World War II era (F). This sexual oppression was not only in Newman’s household, but in almost everyone’s. While the civil rights movement began in the mid-1950s and ended late 1960s, the LGBT community started to come out of the closet slowly. The gay rights movement stemmed from the civil rights movement

Two Diaries, Donald Vining’s A Gay Diary Vol. Two and Martin Duberman’s Gay in the Fifties look into the everyday life of gay males in the post-World War II Era. While World War II increased freedom for men to sexually explore within the male community, post-World War II extended the freedom of exploration but also created a subsequent backlash against homosexual practices. Vining and Duberman’s diaries document an extension of gay freedoms in the post-World War II period. Although Vining and Duberman give contrasting accounts of their lives as gay males in the postwar period, common themes could be drawn in the form of friendships, sexual activity, relationships, and backlash by heteronormative society.

This mother --symbolizing discrimination-- is puritan and modest in a way that, according to the racist white Americans, was normal and reasonable. It was a part of their lifestyles to discriminate the black population of which they viewed inferior compared to themselves and other white people. The “inferior” African American population as a whole, including Countee Cullen himself, is represented by the son of the father and mother in Cullen's poem. The parents and son are having an argument. The child questions how he is in the wrong when the parents used to be and maybe even still are just like their son. The speaker of the poem, the son, argues that he can be who he wants to be and no one was born worse or better than he was born as. This is expressed in the lines, “Why should he deem it pure mischance / A son of his is fain / To do a naked tribal dance” (Cullen 17-19). A “naked tribal dance” is a major connection to the issue of racial inequality during Cullen’s life and the Harlem Renaissance. The aforementioned phrase included in the poem, “Fruit of the Flower”, along with the mentioning of “checkered sod” setting the mother’s “flesh aquiver” (Cullen 15-16) and the “mystic river” that the mother chants for (Cullen 14) all connect to Africa. An important African-American figure of the Harlem Renaissance is a man named Marcus Garvey. Garvey publicizes his belief that African Americans should go (back) to Africa and start their own

George Chauncey’s Gay New York Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940, goes where no other historian had gone before, and that is into the world of homosexuality before World War II. Chauncey’s 1994 critically acclaimed book was a gender history breakthrough that gave light to a homosexual subculture in New York City. The author argues against the idea that homosexual men lived hidden away from the world. Chauncey’s book exposes an abundant culture throughout the United States, especially in New York. In this book Chauncey not only shows how the gay population existed, but “uncovers three widespread myths about the history of gay life before the rise of the gay movement which was isolation, invisibility, and internalization.” Chauncey argues against these theories that in the years 1890-1940, America had in fact a large gay culture. Chauncey book is impactful in the uncovering of a lost culture, but also works as an urban pre-World War II history giving an inside view of life in the city through sexuality and class.

Notice how Brooks ties together “we” and “things” therefore suggesting that the speaker considers herself and the others living with her as objects opposed to humans. Contrary to the segregation occurring within diverse races at the time, the speaker integrates all those whom she shares a home with, creating a sense of community. The speaker of the poem doesn’t exclude anyone but it is known that they are all African-American. Gwendolyn Brooks includes a hidden repetition in this poem as well, that is the idea of a “dream”. The word “dream” is presented in the first stanza, in the second line, “‘Dream’ makes a giddy sound”, there is a reference back to this dream throughout the rest of the poem such as in the third stanza, “ Even if we were willing to let it in, Had time to warm it, keep it very clean” (8-9). It was intended for the reader to recognize the emphasis on the “dream” which would allow the reader to become aware of the unjust treatment African-Americans were going through. Recognizing that these people didn’t even want to allow themselves to “let in” their dreams and hopes only raised the concern and recognition of the dreadful reality African-Americans had to endure at this time.

Within modern-day America, there are certain societal standards based on sexual relationships. Within the poem, the narrator, a young woman, questions why she has to “wear the brand of shame; /whilst he amid the gay and proud/still bears an honored name” (Harper 26-28). Within her poem, Harper exposes the hypocrisy of the