Tonight was interesting. I went out for a drink....thats what we will call it, with a friend of mine and we met some friends of his(which includes a boy that I know, and who I didn't know was going to be there). So, there is this friend of mine, two Indian boys, and a white girl. and we are all sitting at a booth and this girl starts talking about effeminate men and butch women...and I don't know, very heteronormative rhetoric coming from both sides of the conversation that was being had...so I threw into the conversation ," Have you ever seen the film Myra Breckenridge?" Ha!! I mean really....heteronormativity really catches me by surprise when I hear it--not because I don't know or think that it is prevalent and dominates this culture....but because we have BEEN THROUGH THE 1960s ALREADY? And there has been a progressive movement underfoot to cut down some of these established hierarchies, systems of oppression, and restricted and coformativity-inducing ways of thinking. Mind you, I don't care or mind or even concern myself with people's right and want or need to hold these values, that is absolutely well and good---but to enforce them as rules of a society is another thing altogether. Alas, I think they hinder the liberation and human possibilities of ALL people--and I suppose some people feel the need for those restrictions and so be it, for them.

So, I told them what Myra was about and what occurred in the picture and the table got realy silent..and this girl got a ve sour or annoyed perhaps would be more appropriate look on her face.... and I was quite amused. So, I think the girl had either heard about it or seen and she asked me who was in the film and I told her Raquel Welch and Mae West. I was surprised to see that she knew who Mae was and I was startled when she described Mae as being butch. Oh My God! Mae West? Butch? What in the hell? I didn't press that further other than to say, "you think so?" Now, talk about gender construction and concepts of gender, masculinity and femininity. Mae West, the sexual goddess of the 20th century, who made men's mouths water and who also had every drag queen and gay man at her feet and in her court--butch? Oh my...what a concept...and Ill leave it at that. Alas, the strict adherence to heteronormativity at that table was something to witness.... my god what a military fortress. Strict codes.....oh what a world we live in...