Jake's View

As I read the story, Uncle, I found myself questioning if Jakes brother, Vince, was liked playing the “barber” game with him because he was a homosexual. Then I thought, why does this matter? Why do we make it such a big deal? I realized that narrating the story from Jake’s point of view shows the reader what it would be like if these thoughts and labels society creates for people were inexistent. His innocent words as he describes what goes on around him makes us feel guilty for constructing the stereotypes behind homosexuals, which he will grow to learn. The only reason that Jake has feelings of insecurity is because of the adults who look at him differently or show him that there is something wrong. For example, when Jake’s mom starts crying, she says to him, “Jake, I need my boys to learn what’s right from wrong. I want you to grow up right.” This phrase upset me, because in the mother’s mind, heterosexuality is “right.”
In “Imitation and Gender Subordination, Butler explains how “heterosexuality sets itself up as the original, the true, the authentic,” which makes it “right” in our minds. However, she explains that we cannot truly claim it as original, if there weren’t the idea of “homosexuality” as a copy to affirm its originality. Here, the only reason that heterosexuality is the original is because it came before homosexuality. It is interesting to think about how different society would be if homosexuality preceded heterosexuality. In either case, I think that neither social constructs could exist without the other, which shows that neither can be claimed “right” or “natural.”