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Over the course of the six-week project I did with Kate Weiler, which was meant to explore the question of what it means to attend a historically women’s college while not identifying as a woman, we conducted many hours worth of interviews to get a variety of perspectives on our central question. One interview in particular, with a nonbinary Film and Media Studies major stands out, as they had a particularly interesting take on the process of embracing one’s gender identity. We were talking about why we both disliked the prevalence of the phrase, “It gets better” as a means of comforting LGBTQIA+ youth.

reflecting on where you were when we began this process, where you are now, and what’s been happening in between. How-and-what have you been learning? Where do you think that the edges of your learning now lie? In what ways has your understanding of identity, of environment, and of the reciprocal relationship between them been expanded, challenged, or complexified? In what ways have you been resisting such learning?

Dear Jody,

In her novel “All Over Creation” Ruth Ozeki explores the relationship between identity and the environment.  Her characters illustrate this, along with the crops they grow.  Lloyd and Momoko Fuller know that farming is hard work, especially when you’re growing Russet Burbank potatoes.  In order to produce the ideal potato, you have to provide the perfect soil.  Lloyd and Momoko applied this rule to the way they raised their daughter Yumi.  They believed that as long as they gave her love, kept her in line, and had a firm grip on her, then she would grow up to be the good Methodist potato farmer they wanted her to be.  Unfortunately for the Fullers, children are harder to raise than potatoes.  What her parents believed was a nourishing environment eventually became toxic to Yumi – she wa

In her novel “All Over Creation” Ruth Ozeki explores different family dynamics through her characters.  The difference between the way Yumi raises her children and the way she was raised by her parents is striking.  While her parents (especially her father, Lloyd) took an authoritarian approach to raising her, Yumi instead takes an authoritative approach to raising her own children.  Although it is clear that her parents truly loved her, Yumi felt suffocated by their judgements of her.  In her first letter to her parents, she explains that she was sure that their shame “was going to fill every crack in the house, seep into every second of the day, and suck the air right out of me.” (Ozeki 37).

The 1960’s were a time of change in American society.  Due to the Civil Rights Movement, led by Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. and supported by President John F. Kennedy, society’s treatment of black Americans was changing for the better.  This was a time of growing acceptance of the differences between individuals, however, many differences remained taboo – specifically homosexuality and refusing to conform to gender roles.  In Suzan-Lori Parks’ novel, “Getting Mother’s Body,” the character Dill Smiles shows how these taboos are viewed by others at this moment in time.  Dill, who is widely believed to be a hyper-masculine lesbian, endures a lot of hatred and scorn from others upon their realization that they are not a heterosexual man.

The phenomenon of slipping is present in all aspects of our society, on a micro and macro scale.  We do it without noticing sometimes, unaware of how our behavior may affect those around us.  When we slip as individuals, we unknowingly present others with the opportunity to correct our ignorance by explaining to us why what we did is wrong.  This can be a hard conversation to start, but one that is very important and can change the way we view the world.  When an institution slips, the situation is far more complicated.  Because institutions have more power than individuals, their slippage is much more damaging to society.  Consequently, this damage is much harder to repair - a simple conversation cannot remediate the issue.

The life that Yumi lived as a young girl has shaped her into the kind of person and mother she is. Sure, she is not the best mother but she knows that she has a responsibility for her children, which drives her to become a better mother. Potatoes grow underground, unseen in a moist environment until they are ready to sprout up and be picked from the ground. Yumi's childhood was underground in which she experienced some dark things. But these experiences only helped her grow into a better woman—slowly, until she is ready to sprout up out from underground and finally be her own self. Due to these dark circumstances underground, the act of Yumi actually sprouting out only really happens when she is well into her adult years.