“Are you a girl or a boy?” (SBB). Did you ever deal with such questions while growing up? Most people do not have to deal with this ridicule, but in Leslie Feinberg’s novel Stone Butch Blues, that is only where the trouble begins for a masculine looking girl, Jess Goldberg. When she was just a young girl, an Indian woman next door told her parents she would walk a different path in life. She leaves home early on after continuous ridicule in school, including rape and being brutally beaten. Feinberg tells a story of what life was like for pre-Stonewall, working class, transgendered, lesbian and gay people in the urban Northeast.
Very few understood Jess, and the little that did, didn’t do anything to help her out. Her parents panicked when they realized she was different and sent her to Charm school, unsuccessfully. When they saw that didn’t work, they made her wear dresses every day to school. They even went as far as to send her to a shrink and even an asylum where they made her “sit pretty”.
School should have been an escape route for her but it was only another window open for ridicule. Her English teacher Mrs. Noble was very touched and sad when she read a poem she loved in front of the class,
From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring,
From the same source I have not taken
My Sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I lov’d, I lov’d alone.
The poem was by Edgar Allen Poe and showed Jess’ maturity beyond her years. Jess didn’t understand segregation and was suspended from school when she sat with one of her friends at the black table. Stone Butch Blues not only deals with the struggles of the transgendered, but also with issues of race and class.
At first, Jess’ only escape was her job at a printing factory after school. She had to practically beg her shrink and persuade him that it was good for her. One day, another printer asked her foreman. “Who’s the butch?” (SBB). She was more confused than anything, not really understanding the term. At dinner that night, a work friend of her’s, Gloria talked about her gay brother that took her to a bar where “mannish” women came on to her. This is when Jess’ learned of Tifka’s, the first gay bar, and only welcoming place so far in her life. This is where she met Butch Al, who practically took her under her wing to show her what its like to be a real butch.
Soon afterwards Jess’ alibis for going to the bars were disappearing. She eventually ran away from home and Butch Al and her femme Jacqueline took her in. Cops routinely checked the bar and harassed them, taking them to jail and even raping them. Jess had escaped the ridicule of school but life outside was even more dangerous for a “he-she” like herself.
Because of her androgeny, she found she was able to pass as a man inside of the factories. Several times, people close to her accidently exposed her gender and got her fired, or she quit. She just wanted to get ahead without being put down for her gender. She didn’t necessarily feel she was born into the wrong body though. She just knew that the stereotype of woman didn’t fit her and just wanted to be seen as normal.
This book is really great. Many people don’t know what its like for people like Jess. Even though I have not been through anything nearly as bad as Jess, I can relate. The book also illustrates what the butch and femme lifestyle are like. Butch’s are only supposed to date femme’s and vice versa. I think this is really interesting considering that they are all women and choosing an alternative lifestyle that sort of mocks heterosexual lifestyles. Later in the book, Jess dismisses one of her friends out of disgust because she is a butch with a butch lover. Some lesbians really take pride in whether they are butch or femme. I think that it’s another way to categorize a minority that doesn’t need anymore sub categories. I don’t really fit into either of the stereotypes and sort of rebel against them. At this point in my life, I am a bit more androgenous, I think mainly because of my short hair. People are really rude and un observant. I have had to deal with people calling me Sir or looking at me with questioning eyes. Its not a good feeling.
Stone Butch Blues is one of those books that I couldn’t stop reading. Page by page I sunk deeper and deeper into the story of Jess Goldberg. Feinberg writes fiction so well that the reader almost sees through the eyes of the character. Many people mistake the novel to be partly autobiographical about Feinberg’s life. In an interview, she clears this up, “Although I am a non-fiction writer, I wrote a novel because of the power of fiction to reach readers. I also chose a novel because of its ability to reach down into emotional truths” (Feinberg). The truth really does hurt and that is why it was necessary for Feinberg to construct a fiction novel in order to show the world what trans people go through day to day.
I think this book is an example of why people should stop worrying so much about gender. It shouldn’t matter if someone is biologically male or female, or what they choose to appear as. They are people and deserve to live life without dealing with pressure because of gender. The violence and ridicule that happen could be reduced if people understood the transgendered and werent acting out of fear and confusion. I feel this could be avoided if schools werent so uptight about their gender education.
Feinberg, Leslie. Stone Butch Blues.
Gravois, Valory. "Transgender Book Review." Rev. of Stone Butch Blues. Alchemist-Light Publishing 1999.
Gravois, Valory. "Transgender Book Review." Rev. of Stone Butch Blues. Alchemist-Light Publishing 1999.
Peters, Julie. "Interview with Leslie Feinberg." 1996. 10 Jan. 2008
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