Summary Of A Scar Is More Than A Wound

In her article, “A Scar is More than a Wound: Rethinking Community and Intimacy through Queer and Disability Theory”, Karen Hammer examines how Jess’ traumatic experiences in Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues becomes the foundation for her and other transgenders to find “community and intimacy” (160). In doing so, Hammer expertly highlights Jess’ constant need to establish a home of acceptance to combat the violence she faces throughout the novel. Therefore, Jess uses her traumas to form connections with other transgenders to provide a sense of community. However, Hammer fails to acknowledge the consequences of forming a community based on shared experiences of violence. Jess expresses these consequences in her willingness to give up on the

In this moment, they both recognize the hardening within them evident in their strong emotional responses toward each other. For example, Jacqueline has “tears just start spilling from her eyes” coinciding with Jess having the same euphoric feeling she had the night she “dance with Yvette” (Feinberg 37). In a sense, Feinberg uses these reactions to highlight the impact their shared memories have on both characters. Therefore, both characters recognize how much they have changed since he horrifying experience of their night in jail together; they have become defined by those violent experiences effectively rendering them speechless in response to the realization of this devastating reality. Moreover, Jacqueline quickly retreats from the scene to protect the pureness of her shared memories with Jess. In this action, Jacqueline’s empathizing her willingness to give up on regaining a past version of herself to protect its meaning for Jess; she doesn’t want to taint the experiences of the summer in Niagara for Jess with the aftermath of the violence experienced in jail. Therefore, Jacqueline doesn’t want to destroy the meaning of Niagara for Jess, expertly described by Hammer, “she enjoys for the first time a sense of social location, community, self-respect, and sexual love”(161), with her own downward spiral; a decision Jess accepts without resistance effectively providing a commentary on violence’s horribly remarkable ability to separate bonds born out of shared traumatic