Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who Has the Biggest Penis of Them All?

Not that I don't always, but I really happened to enjoy the blog assignment this week because I feel as though both pieces of writing had a lot purpose and meaning within each other that some of our other assignments miss out on. I think that in James's telling of "Uncle" the reader is given a chance to see the principles of Butler's writing in all its shocking truth and validity. Imitation is an extremely powerful tool for one's development in a world where we as organisms can seemingly only survive and flourish if we are accepted by our peers. Gender may be one of the touchiest within in this realm in that the validity of one's gender and sexuality are under constant scrutiny by our peers and in only have two classifications, male and female, there isn't a lot of room for gray. Jake as a child understands this concept and thereby holds his brother in high regard for the abilities which his penis has, learning from his environment that the size of your penis is directly relative to the breadth of your masculinity which within his environment is the only scale that matters. Butler takes hold of and criticizes this concept in her examination of the way in which classifying gender and sexuality only work to betray the significance of these two ideas and feelings for those having them. In Jake so early on trying to prove himself to people that probably shouldn't be role models he will ultimately be hindered in appreciating and realizing his own unique sexual drive.

These readings also brought to mind for me the Cooley concept of "looking-glass self" which I think can be distinctly seen in Jake. Within James's story, Jake hardly holds any sense of himself and becomes an object in the reflection of the values of his family. He evaluates his own worth and ability not by how well he can colour, something I was pretty proud of when I was a youngster, but in his penis's capacity to becoming bigger "magically." In taking on the value system of his brother, Jake loses a piece of himself but gains the acceptance of his environment thereby having his sexuality and desires be not a derivative of him but rather what he has been told to be. I think that although Jake's story may not be identical to all of ours, we are not so unlike him in that we are all in some ways reflections of our environments... just maybe not so considered with the size of our penis.

--Jheanelle G.