Kitchen
Reading Shameka Response: Stoney Butch Blues
02-01-2012
Summary of Jess Goldbergs Life
As we look into the life of Jess Goldberg pre-Stonewall era, we see that her only hoped
was to be accepted for who she was; granted, its what most people desire in this every day
world.
Jess introduces the reader by writing a letter to the woman who acted as a main survival
mechanism for Jesss life throughout her years of he-she affiliations, humiliations, and turmoil;
the prostitute named Theresa. Femmes helped butches express emotions resulting from rape,
mental and physical beatings; likewise, butches nurtured femmes pain of being victimized as
prostitutes. Through Theresas guiding and comforting touch, Jess was allowed to express her
cognitive emotions of hurt, inequality, and guilt. During those times, her hope for survival
depended on the love of other butches considered family, the astoundingly attractive drag queens
she called friends, and the femmes she had as lovers. But going through life, however, Jess began
to realize that she was not comfortable with herself identity; did she feel like a woman or man?
That question seemed to be on her mind for the rest of her life.
Growing up, Jesss parents thought they gave birth to a child that trapped them in a life of
marriage and misery. The reader sees young Jess predestined to walk a hard road in life because
she was different. She did not want to be like the girls in the magazines, nor did she care about
style. She also wore T-Shirt and Jeans to express her careless tendencies. Nobody could
understand her non-feminine qualities or accept her mannish looks. Jess could never understand
why people were always mad with her or why people were never satisfied with her selfless acts
of kindness. She learned at a very young age that the world had already judged her harshly,
unfortunately leaving her with a life of tears in mental solitude. These callous judgments only got
worst as she began her long journey throughout the he-she life.
Jess started to identify herself being a baby butch in the gay and lesbian world as a
teenager. Finally, she could slowly be herself around people who accepted her. Butches alike
embraced her, trained her up, and bestowed worldly wisdom on becoming a butch woman. The
elder butches warned Jess about where her life was headed as the years would pass. Still, Jess
felt herself improved by making the bare necessities; being able to go to gay and lesbian bars and
feeling comfortable, dancing with a femme for the first time, dating a femme for the first time,
etc. What she wasnt prepared for was the first time she was beaten by the police, her worst
enemies. Cops took advantage of these womens rights to sex and made them feel dirty, leave
them feeling worthless, embarrassed, and restrained with fear. How could she bare these burdens
for the rest of her life?
By having a union job, Jess was able to sustain the basic needs for life; but
unfortunately, it also became a place of segregated inequality for gays and lesbians. As she began
to experience life as a true butch, Jess realized that it was hard for her to get and keep jobs.
Because she was butch, she always had to fight for her dignity, and demanded respect as her
straight counterparts received. Along with help from the union, Jesss riots produced longevity in
factory jobs. However, society continued to make it hard for the survival of the other by
mentally dehumanizing their existence.
When Jess began to see that living life as a butch was becoming more dangerous because
of near death experiences, she thought life would be easier if she could pass as a man. A lot of
her close friends understood the dynamics of life behind it, but the one person she needed most
in the world could not deal with her dramatic change. Theresa let Jess down by loving her and
yet leaving her to face her painful journey alone. Jess fell into a deep depression of solitude,
trying to mend her heart by confiding in other femmes that ended up betraying her. And so, no
one was able to help her through her heartbreak.
Jesss experience portraying a man in society helped deplete a life of beatings and torture
from her enemies. There was finally a comfortable flow at work and she was accepted for her
outward appearance, but she still felt like she was betraying who she really was inside. Her
manic depression fell deeper over time as she continued throughout life living carelessly without
meaning. One day, however, Jess realized that she could no longer live her life as a man; she
realized that her identity was dying slowly physically and mentally. It was time for her to
conquer her battle with fear and to live with a meaningful purpose for herself and through the
eyes of other people.
Jess Goldberg gradually rose back on top of things as she began to face her past by
accepting her self-identity. She was also able to find love again with her confidant named Ruth.
Jess was finally letting go of all that hurt her, and turning it around with hope to change the
world. She always silently and consciously worked as an advocate; now it was time to really let
her wings soar. She also learned the rhythms and sounds of her own voice and was able to speak
about her life as a he-she. With a round of applause of acceptance from the crowds, Jess saw her
hope come alive in her once dark world.
Context about Jess Life
After Goldbergs WWII and the economic stirrup, America made an effort to purify its society.
Anything that did not fit into a heterosexual lifestyle could not be practiced. For example, before
the war, homosexuals could walk the streets and not really be harassed. It was not a big deal to
hide homosexuality. Post war, they were forbade rights to openly express themselves all together.
During the pre-Stonewall era, the laws and rules of society looked at homosexuality as
unlawful. Sadly, society and the law enforcement became the enemies of the gay and lesbian
world. Sometimes gays were condemned and compared to leaders of communism. The creation
of the unions was associated with communism. However, for the sake of closeting gay and
lesbian lifestyles in America, strict demands were taken to shut them out of the normal world
so they could not join together to retaliate against society and as a result ,efforts to making a
living were almost impossible.
Labeling seems to be an important entity of our world with everything having to have
meaning. There were only male and female gender role labels back in the middle of the 20th
century; anything different was labeled as an abnormal disease. In Jesss story, she was a woman
who did not prefer men. Her preference was the lovable compassion of a femme or a feminine
drag queen, thus, defying the rules of the binary gender roles. Society forgot that people like Jess
had the same basic human emotions, feelings, and desires that heterosexuals experienced.
Labeling only helped a heterosexual lifestyle. Gays and lesbians did not have a label. Even Jesss
mom and dad could not understand her unique way of life.
During the pre-Stonewall days, butches, femmes, and drag queens all became a secret
family in their bar lives or alternative lifestyles. They knew that people in society did not view
them as human beings, so the bar life was a way to express themselves freely. In the 1950, gay
activist group Daughters of Bilitis became to be an alternative of the bar life in San Francisco.
Like the bar life, they met in secret to teach lesbian women about the importance of embracing
who they were and to fight for a change in the laws of society. Even today, everyone wants to be
loved, needed and appreciated by at least one person. Living and hiding behind the identity of a
man for some of Jesss life helped her cope with the physical pain thrown at her from the world,
but did not change the worlds view on her lifestyle.
Both bar life and gay activist groups strived for a world of hope, love, and survival. Civil
liberties of gays and lesbians were always denied in society, even before the Stonewall Riots of
1969. Police got away with rapings, beating and sometimes killing gays and lesbians because of
their practice of homosexuality. In one illustration in the novel, Jess waits in a cell until she is
called to be prosecuted by police brutality. When she is taken into a back room, she is forced on
her knees and told to perform filatio on one of the cops. Jess realized at that moment she had a
choice in the things she would not do and the things she refused to do. Her refusal of the cops
command was having her head submerged in a toilet full of the cops feces. After her experience,
Jess was taken home by Theresa and nursed back to physical and mental health. The reader can
observe how the bar life was a place butches and femmes could establish a place of love and how
they were able to survive beatings, humiliations and mental wounds throughout her early gay and
lesbian life.
Unlike the cruel and cold streets and bars of New York city gay life, the documentary of
the Lesbian Elder Ruth showed a contrasting view of the life of a middle class African American
lesbian woman experiencing gay and lesbian life in Chicago. Ruth came from an entrepreneurial
family of love and connectedness, something that Jesss childhood lacked. Ruth finished high
school and went to college and experienced another side of gay life. Because of her middle class
income, she was able to help host some of the first African American gay parties out of her
home. She was never ashamed of being who she was, however, she still hid her lifestyle from the
public eye to avoid the beatings and jail time as Jess experienced. She fought for her rights by
joining activist groups and going to activist meetings. Jess fought for her employment rights
through the unions. All in all, both girls fought against their injustice.
Today, gay rights have come a long way since the Stonewall Era. There are even certain
days that gay pride is recognized in different cities such as San Francisco, CA and Atlanta, GA.
In the Atlanta Gay Pride magazine, we see how many sponsors, parades, interviews, and politics
help bring awareness for civil liberties for gays and lesbians. Events such as these help remind
gays and lesbians why it is important to continue to express their identity for their sanity, no
matter how uncomfortable it may make some people feel. Riots and fights have been won in
order for gays to rightly lead their own lives. It is time for people to accept the hope and change
for gay culture. It takes a lot of courage to be proud of who you are. The most courageous people
make their mark on the world to bring about change and peace. Overall, Jess Goldberg set a great
example for the gay and lesbian future.