Just as the straight world misreads Brownworth, the existence of many different identities of class as well as gender and race further contemplates the division of society in to us vs. them, based upon appearances.
Lucy Grealy, unlike Brownworth, does not find herself part of many 'us' categories -- rather, because of her unique facial deformity, born of a long struggle with childhood cancer of the jaw, she feels ostracized and alone in a world that idealizes physical beauty. Grealy feels only like an 'I' or a 'me,' a country of one, and she cannot mutate her identity of her face as easily as Brownworth or her parents can pass. Grealy is also subject to the same cultural influences as Brownworth and her parents that privilege a singular ideal of female beauty. She is also, based on her appearance, misread. But rather than in terms of class or sexuality, Grealy is misread as ugly, even though she is beautiful inside.
Brownworth...
But she chose this; she chose not to proclaim her lesbianism consciously in her dress but to use more quiet and meaningful ways to convey her sexuality and class. Grealy had an even greater challenged. She had to find a way of integrating her sexuality into a source of something meaningful and unique, because it did not mesh with common external notions of beauty. Unlike Brownworth, there was no way to selectively chose when she would pass and not pass -- Grealy was subject without refuge to the constant cultural tyranny of judgment full force, and to her credit, she met the challenge head on.
Works Cited
Brownworth, Victoria. "Passing." Queerly Classed
Edited by Susan Raffo. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1997.67-68
Grealy Lucy "Mirrorings" the best American Essays.
Robert Atwan. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. 76-88.
