When one is separated from those they are supposed to be closest with, they will often look to fill that emotional gap with some form of self expression of comfort. As in Cisneros’ personal essay “Ghosts and Voices: Writing from Obsession”, the distance I lived from my family, both literally and metaphorically, helped to shape myself and my voice. Since both my parents originally hailed from Montreal, the majority of my family remains there to this day. While I am quite close with everyone, there has always been a gap between our existences. Furthermore, being the only openly LGBTQ+ member of my family served to form a greater divide between myself and my inherently Irish Christian loved ones. As a substitute, for what I cannot quite say, I
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Not only are my loved ones devoted to our cultural traditions and views but with those views comes an ingrained sense of homophobia, which poses a problem for those in the LGBTQ+ community. Being one of those people, the only one in the family I personally know about, has formed a bit of distance between those society says I should be closest with. Until two years ago I always felt the need to repress my romantic interest of the same gender. While I was always an advocate of accepting everyone no matter what, as long as you are a respectful and kind person, I still felt a sense of personal shame around this aspect of my life. Thus, I turned to literature and media for an answer. However, except for small side-plots to stories or television shows, there is not very much representation except for that which is heavily over-sexualized. Despite the minimal variety of options in literature, I grasped onto what little I could and gained both experience and introspection from it, similar to Cisneros and her childhood …show more content…
Take Cisneros’ personal essay. Despite not being identical to mine or even in the same country or from a similar background, I was able to relate to her life on a personal level. Like myself, she had grown up feeling a distance between her family and herself. To fill this gap she turned to books as both a form of introspection and
Not only are my loved ones devoted to our cultural traditions and views but with those views comes an ingrained sense of homophobia, which poses a problem for those in the LGBTQ+ community. Being one of those people, the only one in the family I personally know about, has formed a bit of distance between those society says I should be closest with. Until two years ago I always felt the need to repress my romantic interest of the same gender. While I was always an advocate of accepting everyone no matter what, as long as you are a respectful and kind person, I still felt a sense of personal shame around this aspect of my life. Thus, I turned to literature and media for an answer. However, except for small side-plots to stories or television shows, there is not very much representation except for that which is heavily over-sexualized. Despite the minimal variety of options in literature, I grasped onto what little I could and gained both experience and introspection from it, similar to Cisneros and her childhood …show more content…
Take Cisneros’ personal essay. Despite not being identical to mine or even in the same country or from a similar background, I was able to relate to her life on a personal level. Like myself, she had grown up feeling a distance between her family and herself. To fill this gap she turned to books as both a form of introspection and