Research Paper On Gore Vidal

Critical Response Paper #1

Gore Vidal

Defender of the Homosexualist

Linh Nguyen

Net ID: Wg2892

English 3770

Professor: Dr. Cynthia Andrzejczyk

November 5, 2017

Gore Vidal is considered as one of the most celebrated writer and essayist in American literature. With the publication of The City and the Pillar in 1948 and his essay Some Jews and the Homosexual that published in 1981, Vidal launched the career for which he would later become known, a defender of the homosexualist. Both of these writings to some degree liberated Vidal from the inner tension he claims to have felt in his early works. He has maintained the belief that being gay is not unnatural nor a person should be categorized as homosexual based on his or her sexual

He wants to lead a homosexual existence in a heterosexual world. Vidal seems to be expressing that homosexuals are just as heterosexuals as he has stated that “homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality” (Vidal). Furthermore, Vidal’s portrayal of Jim Willard also expresses a level of distaste toward the womanly weak gay men image. In contrast. Jim is a strong and masculine man; he became soldiers and sailors and joined Air Force during World War II. Through Jim, the audiences meet a whole spectrum about gay men and so Vidal has challenged views of homosexuals being soft or effeminate.

Jim is also representing Vidal’s belief that all gay men are neither feminine nor feeble. Jim is described as an athlete with strong personality. He makes anyone afraid that they don't fit in with the stereotype of homosexuality feels less alone. Of course, you can't forget that he's also a cautionary tale for a more general audience during the 1940’s. Jim is a complex, multi-faceted being who defies simple categories. This illustrates that Vidal has rejected any kind of labeling to describe homosexuals as weak or

Vidal counters Mrs. Decter’s definition of homosexuals in an article, “The Boys on the Beach” that was published in a magazine. Decter thinks that homosexuals are half men, half woman; people who are characterized as the sweet and girlish human beings. Vidal says that Decter’s point of view of homosexuals is incorrect. According to study, there is no hormonal difference between men who like sex with other men and those who like sex with women. For the people to categorize a certain group or minorities as homosexuals because they have sex among themselves is wrong because such distinctions may seem simple, human sexual behavior does not always fit into a single category. And these homosexuals are also performing the sex act to their mates willing and happily just like heterosexuals. This further justifies, “The reason no one has yet been able to come up with a good word to describe the homosexualist is because he does not exist”