Okay, so my English class has recently read a poem by T. S. Eliot called "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." During studyhall one day, my friend and I were talking about the poem and how our teacher always interprets things in really odd ways. I then told him that my interpretation of the poem is that Prufrock, the narrator and main character, is gay. You see, the whole poem is about him trying to work up the courage to ask an important question. He talks about how, by asking this question, he would be changing everything and he would be "disturbing the world." He carries on like this for quite some time and the more I read into it the more I feel that he is not trying to ask someone else a question but rather he is trying to ask himself the question "Am I gay?" I felt like I could really connect some of the things he was saying to my own experience with questioning my sexuality. So anyway, after I told my friend that I though Prufrock was gay, he told another guy from our English class. This other kid then decided to bring this idea up in class that day and when he did, our teacher laughed in his face. Later on in the class when she made a comment that kind of implied that part of the poem could be about Prufrock, for lack of a better way to put it, sucking on a penis, my friend joking said, "Oh, so he is gay." Well...let's just say that my teacher really didn't like that comment and yelled at him for insulting the gay community. Apparently, just talking about gays is an insult. At this point I wanted to punch her in the face because, to me, it's more insulting to not be able to talk about homosexuality in school than for someone to make a joke about it. I actually didn't find the joke offensive at all and I actually am gay. Plus, who is she, a married straight women to say that what Prufrock is feeling can't possibly be a result of him being gay. It's not like she knows exactly what it feels like to question your sexuality. I'm not saying she should automatically agree that Prufrock might be gay, but she shouldn't be so quick to laugh at the idea and then criticize us for thinking that it might be true. This whole thing just made me extremely mad. What do you think? Have any of you ever read this poem?
No, but I can relate. In class we've read a story about men in prison and there was a part where one prisoner made homosexual advances to another prisoner and all you could here that class say was "he's a faggot" and "that's so gay". Later in the story, openly gay men came into the prison. And my teacher said "you know how openly gay men are" (to give the kids a sense of how the characters act) and one kid said "yeah, faggots"
I've been lucky at school, because one of the most enlightening and candid conversations I've ever had about sex sensuality in art and the nature of sexuality was with a teacher. This might sound weird, but she's a Classicist, so they have to be matter-of-fact about sex. Latin, Greek (and, in some cases, Ancient History) are the dirtiest subjects by far! However, I was angered by two sex-ed lectures we had in which gay/lesbian sex were not mentioned at all, so this unfussed attitude clearly does not cover the whole school. That may have been a slight tangent from where this thread started out, sorry!
Wow. When I was in high school, I went to a pretty small school that only had about ten teachers--and three of them were gay, and they weren't officially out but everyone knew anyway. I mean, I'm completely sure they were out except to students. And one of them lived in the apartments next to the school. It was sort of an "open secret," so to speak. It was an art school. We had openly queer students all the time. I'm so glad that was my experience. First of all, that is a completely valid reading of that poem. And there is some reason to think that T. S. Eliot was gay--that is definitely a possibility. And seriously--she suggested that some imagery in the poem suggested that a man was sucking on a penis, and then said it was offensive when someone said that was gay? A man sucking on a penis is gay! That's not a joke--if the poem is symbolically talking about a man sucking on a penis, it is definitely talking about homosexuality.
This year, the only class homosexuality comes up in is my US History class. Mostly, it's stuff about homosexuality and the law. The only not class-related time it came up was when my teacher (this hilarious elderly Jewish woman from New York) said that gay men are the best cooks.
Think you could find a link to this poem? I don't have the time to find it, but I'm really interested in reading it ^_^
When I was in high school, many, many years ago. I don't remember even once any real talk about gays or anything related to gays. Not even sex ed, which was entirely a male/female perspective. The only possible exception might have been in passing--say, when talking about AIDS. It was sort of a shock getting to college. That fall, there was a play put on written by one of the professors. And two of the characters were gay. I had to see that, and then discuss it class. I was uncomfortable, because there were themes in that play about sexuality, and I was pretty modest/prudish/out-of-it back then.
No I haven't read that poem, but I've been apart of a few disscussions regarding homosexuality in my classes in high school and college. What was surprising is that in high school despite having a small population (student-wise) and being a Catholic school, it was pretty open towards anyone who came out or disscussing it. Sure there was the occasional dicks and jerkwads who used faggot and other slang terms or made fun of anyone who they thought was gay. But for the most part everyone was pretty nice and accepting about it. It wasn't a taboo subject or subject of hate in my school.
When I was high school and we were reading a story about a sailor who meets his doppelganger (I don't remember what it was called) we talked about the homosexuality that was hinted at in the story. There was some awkward joking - as there was anytime we talked about sex - but for the most part everyone was cool. And I've read the Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock, but I thought it was about him not having the courage to talk to a girl he likes...that was the way we interpreted it as a class at least.
I really envy how much more open some other EC member's high schools were! I was thinking of this topic this evening, and I realized that nothing related to any aspect of sexuality was ever really talked about. (Except as necessary, like sex ed. It would be pretty hard to teach that without mentioning sex.) I don't know if it was conscious choice on the school's part, or just an accident, but even our literature texts were edited to be squeaky clean. For example, one story that had "rubbers" edited out. I have a feeling I know why, but in that context rubbers had a much different meaning. Of course, I guess one does have to realize that many students that age are...a little immature. I remember one time reading a story--my teacher liked doing that for the convenience of those who'd barely passed second grade reading--and one word in the section was, "ass." As in the animal. I read it, a chunk of the class began laughing. "He said ass!" Words cannot express how grateful I was when I got out of high school.
Here's a link to the poem for the guy who wanted to read it. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot
With you all the way. And as your teacher was deliberately excluding interpretations of the poem, no matter how accurate, this sounds not just offensive but a complete failure of the educational system.
My school has been excellent with regards to all gay stuff -- although you hear fag sometimes, and gay is used for something lame, people are really completely accepting. Looking back on years 8 and 9, I really appreciate what my English teacher did. He frequently brought up media with gay characters or relationships, with the point not being that they were different but that they were normal. We asked briefly for clarification that it was a gay couple rather than a straight one who had gender-blending names, and then just shrugged and did the work. We also had lessons about homosexuality in Health Ed, though not enough of them. Oh, and Sir Ian McKellen came and talked about being gay and Stonewall and so on. That was awesome.
