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Analysis Of Rosaleen Mcdonagh's Queer Connections

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Unsettled: Rosaleen McDonagh’s memoir, depicts the intricacies and struggles she experiences as a Traveller woman in Ireland. Her intersectionality of race, identity, and disability has come between her development of individualism and independence on top of her father’s beliefs and cultural expectations. McDonagh narrates “Queer Connections” from what seems to be her younger self experiencing love, separation from her family, and reconciliation with her suppressed identity. The short story's narrator believes that she brings shame to others and her family due to her physical disability. Therefore, she has low expectations of how others treat her whether that’s romantically or platonically. On her service provider bus, the narrator meets David, …show more content…

When they both wanted physical intimacy they showed fear at first, but when they bluntly vocalized consent the experience was running much smoother. The author purposely includes, “it was me who pulled off his jumper” (41) to show how the tables have turned and now she exerts the power. The narrator acknowledging herself with “it was me” aims to contradict the initial internal fight with herself that she was experiencing when she was trying to take her clothes and her family had to help her since she was unable to do so. David’s and the narrator’s disability is displayed by the comment of pornography not being included in “bodies like ours” (41), yet this doesn’t seem to be a problem for her as much as it seems for David. The assertion of the narrator’s identity is slowly reflected when she has a positive approach to her history of sexual abuse. The narrator is taking the components that initially were referred to her as “setbacks” and bringing them to life as warrior scars. She now conceives authority upon David, which “meant he let me take the lead” (41). The narrator is reclaiming everything that she lost under the room of a Traveller man or that she repressed due to her lack of confidence. The author communicates the normalization of the awkward encounter between the two with the inclusion of the words, “trust and love”

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