Creating Ambiguity in Natural Spaces: The Ecological Queering of Gender in Cereus Blooms at Night and Small Beauty
I argue that Small Beauty and Cereus Blooms at Night establish ecological spaces as ambiguous in order to deconstruct preconceived limitations around the natural, and further explore — and encourage the exploration of — queer subjectivities, particularly genderqueer subjectivities, in an organic context. SMALL BEAUTY IN THE CONTEXT OF ORGANIC TRANSGENDERISM Nicole Seymour, a queer theorist who preaches the importance of “organic transgenderism,”
Both novels establish transgenderism as a natural state, one that does not necessitate excessive explanation from transgender characters, or even narrators. In Cereus Blooms at Night, Ambrosia Mohanty’s transition to Otoh Mohanty, from male to female, is described as a “flawless” transformation, one that angularized his body and “tampered with the flow” of female hormones. Mootoo emphasizes the ease of the transformation even in other’s eyes: “… the child walked and ran and dressed and talked and tumbled and all but relieved himself so much like an authentic boy that Elsie soon apparently forgot she had ever given birth to a girl” (110). The organic transition removes the need for any institutional verification of gender authenticity, such as genital modification or hormone therapy through medical institutions, and thereby establishes genderqueerness as organic as any other internal desire. The story’s narrator Tyler’s acceptance of his femininity comes from …show more content…
Her transition is not even described — as it is with both Tyler and Otoh — her identity as a transgender woman is a given. The audience learns of her gender identity indirectly when the Annette tells Mei she “is sick of being the only Asian transsexual left in Dundurn” (Wilson-Yang
I argue that Small Beauty and Cereus Blooms at Night establish ecological spaces as ambiguous in order to deconstruct preconceived limitations around the natural, and further explore — and encourage the exploration of — queer subjectivities, particularly genderqueer subjectivities, in an organic context. SMALL BEAUTY IN THE CONTEXT OF ORGANIC TRANSGENDERISM Nicole Seymour, a queer theorist who preaches the importance of “organic transgenderism,”
Both novels establish transgenderism as a natural state, one that does not necessitate excessive explanation from transgender characters, or even narrators. In Cereus Blooms at Night, Ambrosia Mohanty’s transition to Otoh Mohanty, from male to female, is described as a “flawless” transformation, one that angularized his body and “tampered with the flow” of female hormones. Mootoo emphasizes the ease of the transformation even in other’s eyes: “… the child walked and ran and dressed and talked and tumbled and all but relieved himself so much like an authentic boy that Elsie soon apparently forgot she had ever given birth to a girl” (110). The organic transition removes the need for any institutional verification of gender authenticity, such as genital modification or hormone therapy through medical institutions, and thereby establishes genderqueerness as organic as any other internal desire. The story’s narrator Tyler’s acceptance of his femininity comes from …show more content…
Her transition is not even described — as it is with both Tyler and Otoh — her identity as a transgender woman is a given. The audience learns of her gender identity indirectly when the Annette tells Mei she “is sick of being the only Asian transsexual left in Dundurn” (Wilson-Yang