The article “Bi, Butch, and Bar Dyke: Pedagogical Performance of Class, Gender, and Sexuality” aims to critique and neutralize political aspects of identity performance in the form of three different narratives.

The first narrative, by Martha Marinara, discusses the problems that arise when one’s identity exists between two established “norms,” using the examples of straight/lesbian and professional/working class. One thing I really liked was the way that she explained how all storytelling inherently stems from autobiographical experiences in some way, with the difference being that fiction can have a “happily ever after,” whereas autobiographical writing is limited by reality. Marinara does a great job of identifying the main issue that arises when you exist “in between” established identities when she says that the end result is an identity that never feels comfortable, believable, or authentic. She goes on to say that when you move from one binary identity to another, you no longer have an identity in the space you left behind, as seen from visit to the grocery store where she worked in college. Her students especially feel like they need to “give up” parts of their lives to fit into their new identity as professionals. Ultimately, Marinara argues that identities which don’t exist at either polar end of the binary can be shaped by exploring the differences within the difference and embracing the friction that is caused by this exploration.

The second narrative, written by Deborah Meem, starts off with a really helpful definition and brief history of the terms “butch” and “femme.” Meem includes a chart of identities in her narrative, which is frequently used to identify the privileged and disadvantaged facets of people’s multiple identities. She then argues, using her own life stories as proof, that identities deemed as disadvantaged based on the chart can still hold a certain type of power over other people, and that the categories really should be seen as fluid, rather than fixed identities. One thing Meem said that stood out to me was that she feels she can create a multicultural awareness in her classroom just from being herself, as much as she could from having students read certain diverse texts. As a teacher, I feel this is an accurate assessment, since students are much more likely to be impacted by what they learn from a teacher directly, due to a good rapport that has been established, rather than from what they read, because there’s no personal connection there.

The final narrative, by Michelle Gibson, had me fuming on her behalf. She was right to be proud of the relationships she had cultivated with her students. The examples she included in her dossier showed that she valued all of her students’ experiences, that she cared about them as people, and that she wouldn’t write them off just because they weren’t “traditional” students. The fact that her administrators were more interested in seeing how Gibson could relate to other administrators rather than to her students shows how out-of-touch administrators become when they are no longer in the classroom on a daily basis. This is a problem that continues to persist today, especially in public school settings.

An update on my project process: I have finished the draft of my modern remixed version of The Little Mermaid. In this version, Ariel has traumatic mutism, caused by witnessing her mother’s death. Her father, afraid of losing his daughters as unexpectedly as he lost his wife, has become overprotective and doesn’t let them do anything he deems even remotely unsafe. With the help of her sisters, Ariel secretly joins the swim team, where she meets a new friend (Eric) and where another teammate (Ursula) tries to sabotage Ariel’s success as a swimmer.