Payal Mathur

Embracing the Beauty of Womanly Love in Diane Obomsawin’s On Loving Women

Since the beginning of human civilization, both the categories of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ were taken interchangeably. The stereotypical branding of both the sexes in some weird subjective language forced the theorists and feminists to revisit the categories from a new angle. By the end of Second wave feminism, it was clear that there is an essential difference between identities markers based on ‘sex’ – which is an ontological category and ‘gender’ which is a social construct and an epistemological category. The third wave feminism also started to emphasize upon the rights of minorities like eunuchs, third gender discourses foregrounding the causes of LGBT (LESBIAN-GAY-BISEXUAL-TRANSGENDERED) etc. The aim of my dissertation lies at the borderline of two such minority discourses – animal and lesbian studies. The interdisciplinary nature of such theoretical framework will give me ample opportunity to analyse a graphic book by Canadian animator Diane Obomsawin- On Loving Women.

Lesbianism is a different category, a category which has been introduced with a noble cause to substantiate the rights of women to choose their sexual orientation but has not been implemented in many countries yet. Different people have given their own meaning to this term but the simplest and the most convenient one is – Every person (particularly woman) who cares and feels affectionate towards a woman is a lesbian.

Some definitions of Lesbianism by different writers:

“Lesbians are not women”- (Monique Witting, 1992, p. 57)

“What is a lesbian? A Lesbian is the range of all women condensed to The point of explosion" - (Brown, 1970, p.6)

"A lesbian is a woman who primary erotic, psychological, emotional, and social interest is in members of her own sex, even though that interest me not be overtly expressed" - (Martin and Lyon,1972, p. ix)

"Women- identified women, as lesbians are often called, do exist… They are women who choose their women as their sexual and affectional partners, Women whose self-concepts are independent of their relationships with men, women whose primary energies and loyalties flows toward other women. (Darty & Potter, 1984, p. 1-2)

"A lesbian is the woman who says she is" - ( Abbott & Love, 1972, p. 27)

The term lesbianism was first used in the late 16th century. The term was used as a relative term with reference to the Greek island of Lesbos. Female homosexuality now was commonly known as lesbianism- state of intense emotional and affection of female towards the same sex. The world has shown its anger towards this term, while some people have happily accepted it.

In the first part of my dissertation, I would like to analyse the historical growth of the idea of Lesbianism in Canada as the writer I am discussing in my dissertation is of Canadian nationality. Since the time when Britain had full control over Canada, homosexuality was considered a sin and was prohibited in the nation. In 1890, it is charged with the crime of “gross indecency” and indulging in “unacceptable activities”. In 1969 the government of Canada for the first time passed the bill C-150 which decriminalized gay sex. In 1967, the Justice Minister, Pierre Trudeau passed a law to the Criminal Code which loosened up the strict laws in the country for homosexuality. They were socially accepted in the mainstream and were also given formal legal equality rights the Gay Liberation Act of North America in 1969 proving to be a driving power for Canadians. In 1971, the first protest for gay rights took place. It got more publicity with the publication of with the article “Men Loving Boys Loving Men”.by Gerald Hannon (The Body Politics, Issue 39, December 1977/January 1978)

In 1977, the Canadian Immigration Act took off the prohibition which provided gay men from immigrating. In 1981 there was the establishment of Lesbian and Gay Pride day in Toronto. In October 1985 the Parliamentary Committee released a paper entitled “Equality for All” which discusses the violence, depression, physical abuse, torture, harassment which homosexuals go through. In 1992, the federal government allows gays and lesbians to participate in military services in the year. In 2000, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s Liberals passed a bill C- 23 which gives same-sex couples the benefits as common couples. In 2002 the Canadian favoured same-sex marriages under the law for the first time. In the year 2005 same-sex marriages became law in Alberta. They also allowed same-sex couples to live together. In the year 2010, the people of LGBT faced the problem of bullying which became a major concern in Canada which was soon resolved by the government. In 2012, the government allowed same-sex couples to go for divorce. This instigated many gays and lesbians who are not allowed to get married in their own country to travel to and get married so they can have all the liberties and privileges which were offered by Canada to them. Till now Canada is trying to maintain and give equal rights and comforts to the LGBT people and their struggle to come to get reorganization is still continuing.

In Monique Witting’s essay The Straight Mind (1922) wherein the first section she criticises the concept of heterosexuality as a politics that lies in the base of society and in the second section she focuses on the use of language as the ‘linguistic index of women’s oppression’. According to her, heterosexuality as the politics creates the opposition of men and women in terms of ‘class conflict' and to overcome the conflict we should destroy the category of ‘men’ and ‘women’. The Straight Mind as the title suggests talks about how strange mind works in society through the foundation of ‘social contract’ which gives power to men only. Witting challenges the patriarchal society to give liberation to women so that they can also achieve their goals. She believes that the only way to give liberation to women is to give away the categories of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ in language. Witting believes to separate lesbian subjectivity from womanhood and believes that ‘lesbian identity ‘should connect the reality of the individual. It combines one to itself and her identity. In her novel The Lesbian Body (1986) she explores the power of subjectivity and uses the word ‘Je’ (I) as a symbol of ‘Lesbian reality’. She shows how a woman is confident and bold enough to take her own stand and is not ashamed to speak her heart out expressing her feeling and desire openly to the world.

Jacob Hale, in his essay, Are Lesbian Women? (Sex and Gender Identity 1996) analyses Monique Witting’s claim that lesbians are not women as lesbians do not have a binary relationship with men. For the acceptance of society, they need to have a relationship with the opposite sex. “Lesbians are not women” (The Straight Mind 57) is the last line of Witting’s essay The Straight mind. Hale argues that lesbians are often accused of not being real women or of being “not real women” (Sex and Gender Identity, Are Lesbian Women 47) he means that women have to be the weather expected to be in the society which means that they have to be “the ideal women” which the society believes, whereas lesbians are “not real women” as they're attracted to their own gender which the society does not accept. Lesbians, in the whole world not yet except their identity and feel shy to express themselves. They are the women who are still not allowed to enter into the mainstream. They rather prefer to marry a man in order to be accepted by the communities and their families than to be stared and ridiculed by people. In the end, he revisits the question- “Are Lesbians Women?” (Sex and Gender Identity, Are Lesbian Women 56) and answers that yes, some are and some are not, some satisfy the characteristics of being a woman and some do not and just because a woman is a lesbian we cannot say that she is NOT a woman.

The book that I am, dealing with is On Loving Women. It talks about the condition of Canadian girls who discovered their sexuality at a very early age. It has a collection of the ten short stories and the characters are aged between six between fifteen.

In Mathilde’s story, the young girl of six years was obsessed with horses so much so that her whole room was decorated with the pictures of it. She fell in love with a girl who was in her sister‘s class. She finds her face like a horse. She made drawings for her picture of horses and joined gymnastic classes just to watch her, thinking that the girl will help her with some pointers. “There was a lot of hands-on contact and seduction, too” (On Loving Women, Mathilde’s story 4). This shows how much she was sexually attracted to her even though she had a boyfriend. She later realizes that whomsoever she had fallen in love with (all the girls) all had horse faces. According to Sigmund Freud, horses represent the sexual drive of a person (Freud, 1927). They are the symbol of passion and urge to get involved in sexual activities. When Mathilde had a girlfriend they enjoyed each other’s company, had sex and always engrossed in each other without worrying about the surroundings. She even learned the sign language on how to say ‘I like women’ and talk about sex. The whole story of hers shows how much sex drive she had in her heart and her desire to be in the company of girls, let it be deaf also.

The story is about Maxime, Who at first hated lesbianism but later when she was at the age of twenty fell in love with another girl, later they broke up on a trip then she met another girl but soon she realizes that it was not the same as before. She met the first girl again who handed her an anthology of poems by women titled No More Masks. No More Masks!: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Women Poets (1993) is a collection of the poem is written by Florence Howe. In this anthology, the poems are chosen to address the little details of women’s lives. The poem is all beautifully written and covers the span of 75 years which traces the history off to 20th century America. It has a collection of 104 well-established poets like Amy Lowell, Gertrude Stein, Lorin Neidecker, Muriel Rukeyser, Gwendolyn Brooks, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, June Jordan, Sharon Olds and Lousie Glück. For lesbian women, bars were the only place where they feel safety spent their own time. They can engage among themselves and have fun in the washrooms of the bars.

Sasha’s story is quite different from others as she was not desperately in love with other girls but just attached to them. When she was four years old she had to crush in her class and later as she grew up she was awestruck to see her friends' sister who was three years elder to her which vanished after seeing the childhood picture of the girl. The girl invited her for Christmas celebration but Sasha ignored her because of her choice of toys. Because I cried, Shasha said, “I like it when you cry” (On Loving Women, Sasha’s story 4). This shows that she was not in love with a girl just adored her because of beauty. After some years Sasha kissed her best friend when was horrible to her. In elementary school, she fell in love with classmates but was not sure about her sexual orientation as homosexuality is not accepted in school. College was a Total different story as everybody wanted to have a lesbian experience and she learns to say NO to girls who asked for some hangouts. She got to know that because just wanted to have something different and new which was not love, just an experience. From this story we cannot say was Sasha was sexually attracted towards girls but just cared for them.

The next one is the story of Marie who liked her neighbour, Lorraine. One time their arms touched she almost fainted. Her First kiss was with her brother's girlfriend whose name was Diana-Isabelle. They fell in love with each other and she went to live with her house for nine months enjoyed our time together with a bit of privacy and having sex. They were separated from each other after Marie’s mother and get to know the truth. She was then sent to another place where she did everything which could get her out of the place but instead, she was given a cow to milk which when interpreted can be taken in a positive way. Later in school, there was a girl, Hélène with whom she used to play around but her mother came and told the principle that she was a lesbian and left the school. She had to see a gynaecologist. Her mother made her see the dictionary meaning of lesbian which led her to sell all her sexual desires of making love with another girl.

Diane was a girl who was always attracted towards boyish things like Zorro’s costume and Hardcover Flash Gordon comic book but she never got any. She played Tarzan in the woods. She pretended to be pickpocket which led to switching schools fourteen Times. In every school she finds a girl to fall in love with as it gives me a reason to go to school. She had a Sailor shirt which she wears on special occasions but one day she noticed the outline of a tiny breast which doesn’t go with her shirt. One night she was watching Girls in Uniform and it disturbed her when Romy Schneider and Lilli Palmer were about to kiss as it encouraged her desire to kiss another girl. She fell in love with one teacher and would blush every time she saw her. She went to her teacher’s house for private tutoring and realize that she lives with another woman and had two cats which describe that the teacher and her roommate too are lesbians. When she was a teenager she left with another woman and was in love with her but later realizes that the other woman preferred. Diane dreamed of having sex with her which was a direct indication of her lust towards her dream eventually came true and she fell in love with another woman, Amandine. One day, she decided to watch Girls in Uniform (1931 movie) with her partner to see the missed kiss as her desire to live with another woman and her urge to have a sexual relationship has come true. She had finally put the last piece of her puzzle together by meeting with the girl she loves and exploring her sexuality.

Catherine always knew that she was different from other girls of her school and was attracted to her teacher. She did everything that she could do to get attention which led her to switch her school. In high school, she dated some boys to look like a normal girl because that’s whatever did there but deeply she was unhappy. She kissed her best friend. She decided to shoot a video of a teacher she had a crush on later who got furious and yelled at her but she got a kind of pleasure in getting attention which made her feel that she matters to her. She only finds pleasure and getting the attention of girls around her and not boys. Her story tells us that she wants to fit in the society by acting like other girls but deep inside her, she knows that she was different and is always attracted towards women and girls around her.

Charlotte’s story Starts when she went to a convent school in the eighth grade. She fell in love with a girl who was one year elder to her this spend time with each other in the night, talked a lot, Held hands but she worried that they would never be able to see each other as the girl was not coming back the next year. After ninth grade, all the girls went to home economic school to learn to be ‘good housewives’. As Rich (Compulsory Heterosexual and Lesbian Existence, 1980) has already said that it is the society who has imposed the role of housewives to women, how to take care of children, do household chores and take care of children. They are not allowed to go of their boundaries and explore the world. The girls used to talk to each other all night till the sun rises and once the kissed each other. Charlotte felt so happy, soft and tender. They used to write to each other. They made love in her partner’s house when they spent three days together. Hearing in the story we get to know that the girl with whom Catherine falls in love with is already attracted towards words her and when they two meet, talk stay together they are always engrossed forgetting about the world around them.

October was an innocent girl until her school has organized a trip to Lourdes. She travelled with her mother Superior’s niece who read erotic stories to her. That was the first time when October got a little bit confused and starts to doubt about her sexual orientation. The niece came to her at night and started touching her, she was aroused by it and yet she knew that it was forbidden. When she was fifteen she went to Gay Liberation Front meeting Which shows has which shows that now she has fully explored herself And accepted the fact that she was a lesbian and is attracted towards other beautiful girls. She tried to talk to a lesbian woman in a pub whose name was Chrissie, Exchanged phone numbers and decided to meet her again and again. One day they decided to make love to each other even after knowing that the girl had a girlfriend which made them split up. It was years before they ran into each other. October already has a girlfriend until the day she made a mistake of introducing Chrissie to her girlfriend. Two girls fell in love with each other leaving October alone. Here in the story, we see how October was cheated by her own girlfriend with a girl she fell in love with years ago. She felt betrayed and broken but the only thing which is good in this story is that October got to know about her sexuality in her teenage years.

Jeanne’s story is the shortest of all but it shows the religiousness of society. Jeanne came from the family where the never talked about things like sexuality, lesbianism, gay and stuff like that. When she went to the public school she dated some guys because that’s what everyone does like that in the story of Catherine. Lesbians date boys just to hide their sexuality and to be in the centre and acceptable in society. When she went to this university she fell in love with a girl whose name was Mireille. It was the first day and she noticed about her from hair, stockings, clothes, and everything. Mireille had a boyfriend when they both kissed. Eventually, she fell in love with Jeanne and started spending more time with her and less with him. From the story, we get to know about the already settled norms of the society that one cannot be homosexual and girls are only allowed to date boys, not another girl. It also talks about the religiousness of the family where they’re not allowed to talk openly about their sexuality.

The story of M-H Is very different and it goes back and forth again and again. She had a boyfriend and always used to get trashed. One day she put on a tuxedo and felt a little shocked, feeling different and unusual. In the talks she found herself looking at the girls and a little personality change. As she worked for Bell Telephone the girls used to talk about guys all the time but she was not interested in any of the talks. He found a girl Helen B. who had a boyfriend but never mentioned him. M-H what is crazy about Helen but her boyfriend hated her. She ended up getting a boyfriend and went through a major promiscuous phase which made her sleep with any boy she finds. Soon she decided to go to a lesbian bar where she sent a rush of emotions. Everything hit her and the noted is the sweet scent of love and passion. She was so conscious of your gestures and nervous how to behave among girls as she wanted to be the centre of attraction as Well as to be invisible. Finally, a girl came and talk to her whose appearance was like her brothers who made M-H go back to her past and remember her mother and brothers. Another girl approached her whose outfit very strange but she looked like she was interested in her. She already had a girlfriend. The whole night the three girls had fun, went to an Irish pub and ended up having a threesome. It was the first time and she loved it and the first thing that you said was “Wow! Women rock!” (On Loving Women, M-H story 14) The tuxedo had a great impact on M-H as The second she put it on she send a change in herself which made her realize that she was not happy with her boyfriend and wanted to be within the surrounding of girls. Helen’s boyfriend soon realized that M-H was a lesbian even before she herself did. When she went to the lesbian bar, she felt the rush of emotions like that when normally lovers meet. The conscious of her appearance indicates that she was so nervous among the girls but also wants to be there. She did not want to fall in love with another woman but just want to have sexual relationships with them with no emotions attached. She just wanted to fool around them.

The sexual orientation of a woman is so deeply rooted in our unconsciousness that it rages out in one form or the other and more clearly in her writing and creativity. Lesbian woman analyses observe and criticise the language, manner, and culture of patriarchal society. Adrienne Rich, in her essay Compulsory Heterosexual and Lesbian Existence, gave the concept of “lesbian Continuum” (1980) which focused on the fact that the relationship between women is more deeply rooted and has more strength and compassion. There is a strong relationship between women as there is between mother and infants. It included all the connections between women being sexual or nonsexual experiences. The lesbian women are not crippled therefore have more power and force to change the thinking and show them the exact image of the society. The condition of women as mothers (which make them devoid to go out of their boundaries, be one of the primary sources of earning and walk shoulder to shoulder with men) is because of the restrictions that have been forced on them since the beginning and have relations with men. That is also one of the reasons that they are not allowed to be coupled with another woman. Rich makes a clear difference between lesbian existence and lesbian continuum. There are two very different concepts with a slight distinction. Lesbian existence talks about breaking the taboo of lesbianism and living the life the way you want. It is an act of resistance to the male-dominated society, a relationship where women live together, with or without having a sexual relationship but rather in a place where they can have emotional support. This gives a safe space for women where they can show their care and love to words with each other. She says that heterosexuality has been imposed on women since time immemorial which has affected every aspect of life. To come off the clutches of the patriarchy and imposed role of women in the society, one has to stand up for the rights or take the help of a social feminist analyst to have their own identity.

On loving women can be taken as an animal allegory where the women are characterized as animals. Allegory is a literary device where we have to unveil the hidden meanings to teach a moral lesson or principle. An allegory uses metaphor to enhance the meaning of the work. It is mostly present and fables parables and apologues. Many early writers have used the form of allegories like Cicero, Apuleius, Plato and Augustine But it reaches its height during middle ages. The most prominent use of allegory can be seen in fifteenth-century plays Everyman which uses characters to examine the question of Christian salvation. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950) by C.S. Lewis is the religious allegory, Faerie Queen (1590) by Edmund Spenser is the moral allegory, here the characters are represented as the good and bad and pilgrims process by John Bunyan is the spiritual allegory. One of the most famous animal allegories is by George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945)which is a political allegory which talks about the outcome of Bolshevik revolution and shows how the government system in Russia was replaced by another.

“All animals are equal”- this shows that there are no differences between animals therefore in this novel, the novelist has chosen to use animals to represent lesbians. She does not want that society should discriminate between homosexuals and heterosexuals. The use of allegory shows that there are two parallel lines between the reality of the society and the categorisation of animals which walks together but does not meet. She wants to show the exact image of society through animal allegory as everyone knows that there are lesbians, gays present among us but do not want to accept them. The use of animal allegory in this novel cannot be taken as the truth is the novelist wants to hide as there is a character which has the name, Diane which can also be the novelist herself.

Some questions that come to your mind when you talk about lesbianism is that- Women are considered as a source of happiness for both men and women, then why are they not allowed to choose their own happiness by allowing them to choose their partners? Women give emotional support to everyone, then why are we not concerned about their emotions? Is the only job of women to give birth to the next generation, “sex role”? it because to show the wildness to explore their sexuality? Have they animalized women or feminized animals?

To conclude this dissertation I would like to answer all the questions that come to our mind while reading this book. Firstly, people think that lesbianism is going to dirt the society as since the beginning of the civilization we have not accepted this minority and the community will not easily welcome it. The generation has changed and people have opened their minds but still there countries where society don’t talk about lesbians and gays openly and keep their sexual orientation a secret to make their place in society. It’s the high time when this category should be considered as equals and both the genders should be allowed to choose their partners regardless of the opinions of others. Women have taken care of everyone and therefore we should allow them to go for their wishes and accept the existence of Lesbian Continuum in society. It’s the love and care of both the genders which has made the society a better place for living and therefore it’s important for them to live happily together. The sole existence of women is not just to give birth to children, and do the household chores, It is their job to be happy and make sure that they are free to choose whomsoever they want to spend their lives with, be it a man or a woman. The generation will only then be progressive. There are many other options to continue the generation for examples, adoption and sperm donors. It is not just the “sex role” that is forcing women to be with men. I believe that the characters here are animalised and it’s not an insult to these women but is an allegory form through which Diane has picked the very sensitive which does not hurt sentiments of these women.