Blue for boy, ________, Pink for girl
Blue for boy, pink for girl: we live a life of the color coordinated.
Blue for boy, pink for girl: the stereotype we are all born into.
Blue for boy, pink for girl: even before we were conceived into this earth
our gender has been planned, hoped even.
Blue for boy, pink for girl: the subconscious dream of parents for their
children to grow according to their ultrasound.
Blue for boy, pink for girl…
What happened to rest of the colors?
....
We live a life of prerequisites and tradition. We were taught that in the beginning there was Adam and there was Eve, that there was man and there was woman; who knew that centuries later another would be added to the category: there is man, there is woman and there is queer.
....
So we were tasked once again to do another Cross Text Analysis taking into context these two selections: Boys who like boys by Vicente Groyon Jr. and The Conversion by J. Neil C. Garcia. If you haven’t noticed by now these selections are about the gay, the queer and the confused. With that said, I was actually quite excited to tackle these texts for it wasn’t the usual topic you’d find being discussed in a Literature class. The topic seemed very contemporary, risqué even.
As the general routine goes, I reread the texts and relived the emotions I felt the first time I read these stories. As I read them again several ‘gaydars’ were bleeping off the page. In Vicente Groyon Jr.’s Boys who like boys gaydars were seen in every chapter, if you can call it such.
In the first chapter, where the setting was a dark, smelly, sticky theater where one would most likely get raped, regardless of being a boy or a girl, our main character ventured out, pushed by boredom to watch a movie sitting beside a man who smells like French fries. Long story short there was some touching, some sweating, and some sort of nervous breakdown. This in turn led the main character rushing out through the theater doors, leaving the salty man in the dark depths of the rancid theater. The salty man follows and lo and behold! The man was fashionably clad in a ‘printed shirt… dressed neatly in black double-knit slacks and very shiny black leather shoes.’ All was revealed: the salty man was queer. So what did our main character do in the light of such situation? He briskly walked away with nothing but the words “I don’t think so” creeping out from his lips. Two gaydars can be seen here: being homophobic (which points to the possibility that our main man could, most likely be our main woman) and fashion (this gaydar points to our mysterious, fashionable yet salty man from Hiyas).
In the second chapter, our leading man, the narcissist that he is, looks upon a Calvin Klein ad, ‘marvels at the perfection it depicts’ and soon after strips down to his intimates just so he could copy the muscular, unblemished boy in the picture. This leads to our third gaydar: a man is innately vain.
In the next chapter, like a virgin our boy gets touched for the very first time, or, if you didn’t get my joke, he gets hinself sexed up. In what looked like a dingy motel his purity was swiped. After the workout he and his friends assemble and tell each other the dirty details. In the end he concludes that he’ll never do it again… well that says a lot. So obviously the previous sentence displayed one gaydar, I mean, who self-respecting straight man would say to himself, ever so quietly, never to put himself through an experience like that again. Another gaydar would be a man who would kiss and tell, an egotistical way of trying to show how much a man you can be.
In the fourth chapter a group friends watch a home movie that ends up showing some guy-on-guy action. All except one leaves to do something more manly. The gaydar in this chapter is the choice of movie as well as the choice of music.
The fifth chapter shows a student encountering the loud and proud gayness of his professor and his boyfriend while trying to get drunk. This chapter displays two gaydars: you can possibly be gay by association and by getting drunk; again trying to show how manly you can be (denial).
In the sixth chapter the boys go on a retreat, but they soon realized that they did not enter peaceful grounds… a battle was soon about to begin. With nipple pinching force, crotch-grabbing perversion and thigh-grazing grace the boys fight for victory. But our leading man gets his family jewels touched by a stealthy boy, who was quick on his feet, and hands. The gaydar in this chapter can be seen in gestures.
In the next chapter, our leading man has a sleepover (doesn’t that say a lot already?) with one of his friends so as to finish some project. They end up sleeping in one bed. As our main character slowly falls into slumber he feels a hand raise higher and higher, slowly closing in on the tower. “Chong? Are you awake?” his friend asks. He did not answer. The next day he ignores him and starts flirting with some pretty girl. The gaydar seen here is diction.
Finally, in the last chapter, years have past and our boy has become a man. He even has a girlfriend to prove it. He then reunites with an old friend who brought out the sparkle in his eyes. If the word sparkle didn’t get you into thinking that our main man is indeed our main woman then I don’t know what will.
In the Conversion, where a ‘girl’ turns into a man, several gaydars arise. The ‘girl’s’ cousins, masked in dirt, are most possibly closet queens. The father may be bent as well, being homophobic and all, grabbing ‘her’ by the hair. Diction plays a wonderful part in this story as well, the ‘girl’ was amused that men were touching ‘her,’ though in reality interrogation and torture was taking place. As ‘she’ is forced to kiss the water so crudely, ‘she’ reminisces the times ‘she’ would wear her dead mother’s clothes. Year’s later ‘she’ becomes a he, and he has a wife and five children to prove it. He then takes his uncles for a drink. They drink and drink and ‘nuzzle the bottles like their prides;’ sucking the phallic symbol out of the bottles. They drink and drink, possibly having an orgy through out their drunken escapade. In the end he relives and remembers the girl that drowned many dreams ago. She apparently still lives, only seen in the watery grave of his heart.
After reading and analyzing the texts, I can’t help but think of the situation the significant gender is in, being in a patriarchal society and all: where blue is for boys and pink is for girls, period. If we look at our society as a purely patriarchal, man over woman society then the queer, unfortunately, has no light at the end of the tunnel. In a patriarchal society, men are called to be men and women, well, women, and nothing else. If the rules are bent and the colors go ‘awry’: blue for girls and pink for boys, then somewhere, something went entirely wrong, or so they say. And with true patriarchal fashion something wrong is taken head on with force. They are disrespected, abused, heck even dunked into a metal drum filled with water, just like how fat policemen dunk their donuts into their coffee: with vigor and might. Being a man in a woman or vice versa was never really fully accepted. In this patriarchal society we were taught that in the beginning there was man and there was woman, nothing else… oh and maybe some animals here and there.
Being a girl with lots of significant friends I abhor the reality of the previous paragraph. It’s a petty sort of discrimination and injustice. The traditional society constricts these people amidst lines and ropes that end up choking them, killing their true selves. I don’t see why there are people who are so angry and riled up by the significance of these people. Being queer doesn’t exactly constitute of bloody wars and mafia ridden crimes. Being queer shouldn’t an excuse to hate; it’s stupid. Being queer doesn’t automatically taint their personalities into dark and sinful monsters. I think that the significant gender deserves to be respected and loved as a human being; they are after all just that. They have a right to freedom. They have a right to choice. So why don’t we let them choose? Let them choose what color they want, be it blue, be it pink or any other color in the rainbow.
Blue for boy, pink for girl: the stereotype we are all born into.
Blue for boy, pink for girl: even before we were conceived into this earth
our gender has been planned, hoped even.
Blue for boy, pink for girl: the subconscious dream of parents for their
children to grow according to their ultrasound.
Blue for boy, pink for girl…
What happened to rest of the colors?
....
We live a life of prerequisites and tradition. We were taught that in the beginning there was Adam and there was Eve, that there was man and there was woman; who knew that centuries later another would be added to the category: there is man, there is woman and there is queer.
....
So we were tasked once again to do another Cross Text Analysis taking into context these two selections: Boys who like boys by Vicente Groyon Jr. and The Conversion by J. Neil C. Garcia. If you haven’t noticed by now these selections are about the gay, the queer and the confused. With that said, I was actually quite excited to tackle these texts for it wasn’t the usual topic you’d find being discussed in a Literature class. The topic seemed very contemporary, risqué even.
As the general routine goes, I reread the texts and relived the emotions I felt the first time I read these stories. As I read them again several ‘gaydars’ were bleeping off the page. In Vicente Groyon Jr.’s Boys who like boys gaydars were seen in every chapter, if you can call it such.
In the first chapter, where the setting was a dark, smelly, sticky theater where one would most likely get raped, regardless of being a boy or a girl, our main character ventured out, pushed by boredom to watch a movie sitting beside a man who smells like French fries. Long story short there was some touching, some sweating, and some sort of nervous breakdown. This in turn led the main character rushing out through the theater doors, leaving the salty man in the dark depths of the rancid theater. The salty man follows and lo and behold! The man was fashionably clad in a ‘printed shirt… dressed neatly in black double-knit slacks and very shiny black leather shoes.’ All was revealed: the salty man was queer. So what did our main character do in the light of such situation? He briskly walked away with nothing but the words “I don’t think so” creeping out from his lips. Two gaydars can be seen here: being homophobic (which points to the possibility that our main man could, most likely be our main woman) and fashion (this gaydar points to our mysterious, fashionable yet salty man from Hiyas).
In the second chapter, our leading man, the narcissist that he is, looks upon a Calvin Klein ad, ‘marvels at the perfection it depicts’ and soon after strips down to his intimates just so he could copy the muscular, unblemished boy in the picture. This leads to our third gaydar: a man is innately vain.
In the next chapter, like a virgin our boy gets touched for the very first time, or, if you didn’t get my joke, he gets hinself sexed up. In what looked like a dingy motel his purity was swiped. After the workout he and his friends assemble and tell each other the dirty details. In the end he concludes that he’ll never do it again… well that says a lot. So obviously the previous sentence displayed one gaydar, I mean, who self-respecting straight man would say to himself, ever so quietly, never to put himself through an experience like that again. Another gaydar would be a man who would kiss and tell, an egotistical way of trying to show how much a man you can be.
In the fourth chapter a group friends watch a home movie that ends up showing some guy-on-guy action. All except one leaves to do something more manly. The gaydar in this chapter is the choice of movie as well as the choice of music.
The fifth chapter shows a student encountering the loud and proud gayness of his professor and his boyfriend while trying to get drunk. This chapter displays two gaydars: you can possibly be gay by association and by getting drunk; again trying to show how manly you can be (denial).
In the sixth chapter the boys go on a retreat, but they soon realized that they did not enter peaceful grounds… a battle was soon about to begin. With nipple pinching force, crotch-grabbing perversion and thigh-grazing grace the boys fight for victory. But our leading man gets his family jewels touched by a stealthy boy, who was quick on his feet, and hands. The gaydar in this chapter can be seen in gestures.
In the next chapter, our leading man has a sleepover (doesn’t that say a lot already?) with one of his friends so as to finish some project. They end up sleeping in one bed. As our main character slowly falls into slumber he feels a hand raise higher and higher, slowly closing in on the tower. “Chong? Are you awake?” his friend asks. He did not answer. The next day he ignores him and starts flirting with some pretty girl. The gaydar seen here is diction.
Finally, in the last chapter, years have past and our boy has become a man. He even has a girlfriend to prove it. He then reunites with an old friend who brought out the sparkle in his eyes. If the word sparkle didn’t get you into thinking that our main man is indeed our main woman then I don’t know what will.
In the Conversion, where a ‘girl’ turns into a man, several gaydars arise. The ‘girl’s’ cousins, masked in dirt, are most possibly closet queens. The father may be bent as well, being homophobic and all, grabbing ‘her’ by the hair. Diction plays a wonderful part in this story as well, the ‘girl’ was amused that men were touching ‘her,’ though in reality interrogation and torture was taking place. As ‘she’ is forced to kiss the water so crudely, ‘she’ reminisces the times ‘she’ would wear her dead mother’s clothes. Year’s later ‘she’ becomes a he, and he has a wife and five children to prove it. He then takes his uncles for a drink. They drink and drink and ‘nuzzle the bottles like their prides;’ sucking the phallic symbol out of the bottles. They drink and drink, possibly having an orgy through out their drunken escapade. In the end he relives and remembers the girl that drowned many dreams ago. She apparently still lives, only seen in the watery grave of his heart.
After reading and analyzing the texts, I can’t help but think of the situation the significant gender is in, being in a patriarchal society and all: where blue is for boys and pink is for girls, period. If we look at our society as a purely patriarchal, man over woman society then the queer, unfortunately, has no light at the end of the tunnel. In a patriarchal society, men are called to be men and women, well, women, and nothing else. If the rules are bent and the colors go ‘awry’: blue for girls and pink for boys, then somewhere, something went entirely wrong, or so they say. And with true patriarchal fashion something wrong is taken head on with force. They are disrespected, abused, heck even dunked into a metal drum filled with water, just like how fat policemen dunk their donuts into their coffee: with vigor and might. Being a man in a woman or vice versa was never really fully accepted. In this patriarchal society we were taught that in the beginning there was man and there was woman, nothing else… oh and maybe some animals here and there.
Being a girl with lots of significant friends I abhor the reality of the previous paragraph. It’s a petty sort of discrimination and injustice. The traditional society constricts these people amidst lines and ropes that end up choking them, killing their true selves. I don’t see why there are people who are so angry and riled up by the significance of these people. Being queer doesn’t exactly constitute of bloody wars and mafia ridden crimes. Being queer shouldn’t an excuse to hate; it’s stupid. Being queer doesn’t automatically taint their personalities into dark and sinful monsters. I think that the significant gender deserves to be respected and loved as a human being; they are after all just that. They have a right to freedom. They have a right to choice. So why don’t we let them choose? Let them choose what color they want, be it blue, be it pink or any other color in the rainbow.
Labels: blue boy pink girl
posted by skittle rain at 8/26/2010 09:22:00 PM
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