SEPARATION ANXIETIES - Lsu - Louisiana State University

In contrast, the gang in Set It Off does not meet Rich’s definitions of a lesbianism
predicated on sexual acts, nor do they specifically name men as their primary enemies. But, both
gangs are representative of women’s communities formed in response to patriarchy, as well as its
inherent domination of sexuality, economy, and—in the case of the Set It Off gang—race.
Further, they separate themselves not only from obvious dominant (and mostly male) figures but
also from other oppressed women. These gangs, then, could be read in terms of Rich’s liberal
definition of lesbianism and my working definition of separatism. In Oates’s and Gray’s
narratives, the problems, evolution, and destruction of the gangs begin with and depend upon
colliding gender, sexual, and economic concerns; these collisions, and how Oates and Gray
imagine such characters would cope with them, help reveal possible definitions and revisions of
separatism and community.
In order to discuss what forms of resistance Oates is exploring and how they succeed and
fail, I should first examine Foxfire’s representation of the dominant community. In Foxfire, the
dominant community is a capitalist heterosexual patriarchy. Oates constructs the community of
Hammond, New York as oppressive to characters whose identities place them outside of the
dominant institutions and groups. She presents a conscious, organized feminist separatism as one
possible alternative to oppression; her female characters attempt to use their difference as a tool
of empowerment. They resist patriarchy’s attempt to force them into certain culturally or
biologically determined roles. The author, therefore, seems initially sympathetic to the ideals of
feminist separatism and unsympathetic to deterministic, dominant structures. However, the
choices that the characters make, choices that conflict with the strictures of the dominant culture,
ultimately lead to their group’s destruction. Oates constructs this kind of resistance to patriarchy
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