Straight Convenience
So last week I was a little hormonal. Actually quite profoundly hormonal. In between (strictly medicinal) chocolate, tea, and celebrity gossip magazine binges I tried for some productivity, working on the first draft of the first bit of the first bit of my dissertation. It's happening.
Anyway, for a bit of light reading and in a bid to asuage my hormonal flip-flopping I decided to hit the library up for some good old self-indulgent self-help readin'. I'm highly cynical about much of this but suspect myself of using this cynicism as a front to retain some semblance of cool. One of the books I lugged home in the oversize bag I've been using lately (a bag given to me by the ultra-chill Olivia when she left Taiwan) was called Grow: The Modern Woman's Handbook by Lynne Franks. Franks admits straight up that she was (apparantly) the inspiration for the Ab Fab Edina character which sparked my interest. The book is all about getting in touch with your inner goddess, eating right, meditating etc... I'm tempted to try the meditation stuff because I reckon I could really benefit from it. Thing is...I think I'm so self-concious that I would feel funny about meditating. Makes no sense, I know - who is self-councious about doing things in front of themselves? Me it would seem.
Anyway, then I got to the part of the book where Franks talks about relationships and this happened...
It's not that Franks actually focuses on straight relationships only that bothers me so much as the use of the word 'convenience'. I kept reading it over and over and thinking - 'that is just so wrong'. Whether she intended to or not - and I suspect she didn't - Franks' association of the word convenience with heterosexual relationships *really* reinforces heteronormative practices and places lesbian relationships firmly in the realm of 'other'. It pissed me off. But it did take my mind of my own chocolate-smeared self-pity.
Anyway, for a bit of light reading and in a bid to asuage my hormonal flip-flopping I decided to hit the library up for some good old self-indulgent self-help readin'. I'm highly cynical about much of this but suspect myself of using this cynicism as a front to retain some semblance of cool. One of the books I lugged home in the oversize bag I've been using lately (a bag given to me by the ultra-chill Olivia when she left Taiwan) was called Grow: The Modern Woman's Handbook by Lynne Franks. Franks admits straight up that she was (apparantly) the inspiration for the Ab Fab Edina character which sparked my interest. The book is all about getting in touch with your inner goddess, eating right, meditating etc... I'm tempted to try the meditation stuff because I reckon I could really benefit from it. Thing is...I think I'm so self-concious that I would feel funny about meditating. Makes no sense, I know - who is self-councious about doing things in front of themselves? Me it would seem.
Anyway, then I got to the part of the book where Franks talks about relationships and this happened...
"At this point, I would like to apologize to any gay women reading this book - for the sake of convenience, I'm going to focus and refer to the woman/man partnership..."
It's not that Franks actually focuses on straight relationships only that bothers me so much as the use of the word 'convenience'. I kept reading it over and over and thinking - 'that is just so wrong'. Whether she intended to or not - and I suspect she didn't - Franks' association of the word convenience with heterosexual relationships *really* reinforces heteronormative practices and places lesbian relationships firmly in the realm of 'other'. It pissed me off. But it did take my mind of my own chocolate-smeared self-pity.
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