The Entersexuality In Aimee Bender's Short Story 'Off'

In Aimee Bender’s short story “Off,” the questioning of one’s sexuality is investigated. Through the eyes of the narrator, the readers are bombarded with confusing acts regarding the narrator's sexuality. For instance, the story begins with the narrator asserting that she has made it her goal “to kiss three men,” but the reason behind this goal is not further explained (Bender 107). It’s possible that the narrator desires to kiss three men not because she wants to convince others that she is heterosexual but because she wants to convince herself that she is. The narrator speaks quite frequently of the party’s host and the brief mention of their relationship since high school and their “flirting” gives the impression that it is likely that they are more than friends.

Here, the narrator is showing signs of longing for an authority figure to not only acknowledge her true sexuality but praise her for it. She then points out how her teacher would mistake certain things in her paintings for something harmless when the literal thing was harmful, and this alludes to the way that an authority figure could ignore one of the narrator’s attempts in subtly revealing her sexuality to them and instead regard it as an act of heterosexuality because it’s easier for them to swallow that