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Summary Of Homosexuality In Kushner's 'Angels In America'

Decent Essays

Femininity is something that can often be overlooked by the authors of any literary piece. During the time of “Angels in America”, Homosexuality was not something that was as widely noticed, or even respected, during the 1990s, in which the play was written. The play, taking place in Manhattan, New York, being a fairly loud city, homosexuality would generally be something that is not widely accepted. Kushner represented the ups and downs of homosexuality and a character with aids, becoming realistic for events that could potentially happen. Femininity is not often seen in men especially in the past, since they always relied on having more “manlike” qualities. Femininity is represented by Kushner by complex ideas that create and criticize …show more content…

He says that “cats have intuition (19), becoming an indirect representation of himself who knew that “something’s wrong” (19) between them. Prior defending the cat and its knowledge, is defending himself, with the statement that he has his own intuition. The cat’s intuition relates to a female’s human agency because intuition is one way that women are able to achieve that self-achievement. Though there is a bit of knowledge, a woman’s human agency is still challenged due to the nature of the time period. The connotation of “know” (19) relates to the femininity with the instinct that women have “knowing everything.” Even though a woman may know everything, her femininity causes her agency to fall because women are generally considered “stupid” (19).
Jehlen’s theory of gender criticizes Kushner’s view on femininity. Jehlen states that the ideas of gender written out by writers are “incorporate assumptions about the nature of sexual identity that organize and even suggest critical perception” (263), which is what Kushner metaphorically suggests women to be. Women are assumed to be weak. “Stupid” (19) and rather feminine, which avoids Jehlen’s idea of equality and true recognition of femininity. Jehlen criticizes Kushner’s writings on femininity because she proves that women do have “intuition” (19), agreeing with Prior’s voice. Women are “denaturalized” which

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