Queering Masculinity In Giovanni's Room

James Baldwin novel Giovanni’s Room, is known to be his most controversial novels that the author has written. Giovanni’s Room brings light to several gray areas that may have been too controversial and too risky for any other American writer to speak up about in that time. The novel brings life to heteronormativity and how one is socialized to believe that homosexuality is not a social norm. Baldwin’s approach by using a white male rather than a black man, to show that one can be “de-Americanized” or anyone ripped of their nationality because of the heteronormativity belief set by society.
The idea that one a white man through out the United States history can actually be “de-Americanized”, meaning to strip him of his national identity, due to the American heteronormativity. The novel takes place in a time where the American Dream was to be part of everyone’s future, because it was what was socially accepted. David, though, was not part of …show more content…
To eliminate the black character that is usually he used colored character, especially the white man, to show that homosexuality and heterosexuality can be considered the same in a black or white mans life; and if you are white or black then you can be de-Americanized either way. In “Queering Masculinity: Manhood and Black Gay Men in College” the article states, “Black men generally endorse norms or attributes typically associated with heteronormative notions of masculinity. For instance, Strayhorn (2011) analyzed survey data and found that Black male collegians report that “real” Black men: (a) have sex with multiple female partners, (b) desire success, power, and competition, and (c) project confidence even if [they’re] not” (Stayhorn 88). It is identical to what a white mans heteronormative notions are. David’s heteronormative attributes are similar, except they are intertwined with his homosexual side which causes this constant