Role-play and Fantasy as Repetition of Heterosexual Norms in Empress of the World

Originally, this essay was combined with the essay “Role-play and Fantasy as Repetition of Heterosexual Norms in Annie on My Mind” in one long essay.The transition between the two works read as follows: Annie and Liza are not alone in their explorations of gender roles and sexual expectations. Battle and Nicola from Empress of the World come across the same questions, imitations, and conclusions. The introduction below is essentially the same as the one from the first essay since they were initially one essay and thus built upon the same theoretical framework.

In Imitation and Gender Insubordination, Judith Butler examines if homosexual identification is possible in a society of heterosexual practice and vice versa. Butler emphasizes how no matter what sexual orientation is practiced, imitation drives the actions of each person—all roles, including gender, are just that, a role based on a performance. Therefore, a society that internalizes heterosexual as the ideal cannot tolerate an intrusion of otherness represented by self-identified homosexuality because the acknowledgement of same-sex practices threatens a long-standing ideology. Being away from mainstream society creates a space for those considering homosexual practices to explore sexuality and prescribed gender roles in a society that embraces heterosexual norms. Battle Hall and Nicola Lancaster from Empress of the World by Sara Ryan realize that places that represent openness of ideas and acceptance—summer camp for the gifted—are still subject to pushing a heterosexual agenda and ideology, thus stifling uninhibited exploration. As a result, they rely on fantasy for the ultimate safe space. Fantasy provides the stage for the couple to try different persona and roles, which help them determine if a homosexual relationship is possible in a society of heterosexual practice. While the two try to show gender roles in a relationship as fluid and free from being dichotomized into the male/female binary, their repeated performance of heterosexual relationships reiterates the male/female binary proving homosexual identification is not tolerated in a society of heterosexual practice.

Nic and Battle first rely on fantasy to explore gender roles when Battle uses a puppet to explain her past. Nic initially feels threatened by reality when she sees the picture of a male in the same box as the puppet. Her role is no longer close female friend but rather a scorned potential lover who must compete with someone of the opposite sex. As Battle tells her story, Nic learns this male is Battle’s brother and can resume her role as listener. Battle uses a puppet previously handled by her brother to explain the events leading to his departure but tells the story in third person. Battle does not identify herself as male or female even though her story has two males as the main characters—her father and brother. When Battle hands the puppet over to Nic, Nic questions if she should invade Battle’s fantasy. Nic conveniently chooses not to because she has no role in Battle’s performance. Nic almost becomes expected to perform the role of female and male when she learns that Battle’s brother’s name is Nick. Battle cannot help but superimpose and compare the traits of Nic and Nick: “you [draw] like him, and you [have] his name” (48). What begins as a one-person puppet show turns into a complex show of characters living up to their expectations or not. While the roles of each character is not so straightforward due to Battle and Nic just getting to know one another, other fantasies keep their gender roles just as uncertain.

Nic and Battle need fantasy to help them define their roles in their personal relationship. As Nic cuts Battle’s hair after parent’s night at the summer camp, Nic and Battle put themselves in medieval times. While gender roles were clear during the middle ages, Nic decides to play the role of a lady-in-waiting and has Battle be the titular empress of the world (77). The use of two female characters does not offset the obvious power structure created to reiterate heterosexual roles in a relationship. Battle proves her ability to perform the stronger, privileged role by initiating the process for cutting her hair. Nic performs her role as inferior all too well by literally waiting on Battle. Both characters are working from roles created before they ever thought to perform them. Battle’s beauty, grace, and experience as a dancer enables her to easily slip into the role of leadership and visibility. Nic’s previous experiences of being stage director and behind the scenes of performances prepare her for the role of subordinate to someone who is used to being noticed. So, while Nic hesitates cutting Battle’s hair at first because she knows Battle’s long, silky, blonde hair is her most appealing feature, Nic as servant is more than willing to carry out the bidding of her superior. Battle’s ability to give orders identifies her as masculine in terms of their fantasy. And Nic’s willingness to give herself the inferior role and need to keep Battle’s severed hair as a keepsake identifies her as feminine. So although Battle and Nic play females in fantasy, which would suggest equality, Nic’s use of class establishes male and female expectations one would anticipate seeing in a heterosexual relationship. While gender roles seem a little fluid in fantasy, in reality the need for distinct gender roles becomes pressing.

Labeling proves to be problematic in the novel as Nic and Battle feel they do not live up to the roles given to them. As much as Katrina, clearly heterosexual despite her eccentricities, tries to seem accepting of otherness, she assumes that Nic and Battle are lesbians: “‘God, Nic—I though you two were having this secret dyke thing behind my back, and you didn’t want me to know. I thought you though I was this [expletive] homophobe or something’” (83). Katrina’s need to define the people around her based on sexual preference is an attempt to define herself. If she can successfully “out” someone else, then she can compare herself accordingly and feel assured of her place in heterosexual practice. While Nic may not define herself as a lesbian, this is not the first time the label is assigned to her. During a school performance, Margaret catches Nic looking at Rachel as she changes and receives a kiss. This results in Margaret calling Nic a “thespian lesbian” (66). Margaret is much like Katrina who gets affirmation of her own place and gender role by being able to define someone else. Katrina and Margaret try to use labels as the “identity categories [that] tend to be instruments of regulatory regimes” (Butler 354). But this logic becomes troubling as no one labels Battle lesbian ever, even when she cuts her hair. One of the modern classic signs of a female defining herself as lesbian seems to go unnoticed. Battle’s beauty and exceptional characteristics are not allowed to work against heterosexual norms. Nevertheless, efforts are made to make Battle and Nic fit expectations of heterosexual norms.

Battle and Nic come to understand how stifling gender roles and sexual expectations are when they are forced to wear clothing that others deem appropriate for them. While Battle claims she is “not a doll to be dressed and played with” (77), she repeatedly lets people dress her according to heterosexual norms. Her parents bring her a pink dress to wear after they confess not putting her dogs that she loves more than anything in the world in a kennel as promised. By making Battle wear the pink dress and style her usually free-flowing hair in a tight French braid, her parents ensure Battle will remain submissive. When Katrina, of heterosexual practice, decides to dress everyone for the dance, she bases her clothing on heterosexual standards for a relationship: “‘Nic, I see you with a Prince Valiant kind of look, while Battle here will be a postmodern Tinkerbell” (202). Katrina’s basis for their clothing cannot be inspired by physical appearances because both are female and Battle without hair is made female. Instead, Katrina bases her stereotypes on the characteristics each one possesses. Even without hair, Battle exudes femininity because of her beauty, refinement, and ability to express her emotions. Nic’s focus on science, dissecting emotions, and not so much her appearance makes her more masculine. Katrina expects the clothing to accentuate what she already sees in their personalities. But neither Nic nor Battle would choose these clothes or the roles that go along with them for themselves. While Nic and Battle try to resist prescribed gender roles, their appearance and actions make others believe otherwise.

Gender roles and sexual expectations continue to be restrictive in fantasy as heterosexual practice is imposed. For the volleyball game the boys suggest they compete boys versus girls. This means of differentiation proves ridiculous, as the boys are as non-athletic and unknowledgeable about the sport as the girls. The boys become disillusioned as to their level of ability because the game is a performance: the game is staged by the RAs who insist the students involve themselves in different activities. The girl’s team proves that gender distinction does not mean stereotypes cannot be broken when, especially when they win the game. Battle’s distinct femininity leads Nic to believe she has no chance of being Battle’s partner because “Aside from the whole gender question, [Battle’s] beautiful and graceful and coordinated, and that just confirms that there’s no hope for me” (97). Nic’s inability to compare to Battle’s attributes serves as a means to resist exploring sexual and gender possibilities. But even after it is clear they like one another, Nic has trouble performing a role. Battle prepares a mini-picnic in which she offers Nic wine to drink. When Nic comments on the horrid taste, Battle takes up the role of the cultured female: “‘Well you see, Ms. Lancaster, you simply have not educated your palate properly. If you had an educated palate, you would see—” (130). Nic clearly shows no intention of playing along as she cuts Battle off with reality. Battle tries to get Nic to play along again when she attempts to undo the structure of the hike that the RAs initially set up but was ruined when Nic sprang her ankle. By going under her own terms, Battle provides the atmosphere for homosexual practice, but Nic interjects heterosexual practice by trying to analyze her role and feelings. Nic’s need for scientific explanations continually works against Battle’s rejection of science. When Nic finally realizes the role she is to play, or that there is performance all around her, she does not “have anyone to play that scene with” (155). Nic’s adoption of stereotypical male tendencies continually keeps their relationship from moving forward. Contrived roles do not work for Battle who in reality and fantasy bases who she likes on feelings not gender. However, Nic and Battle cannot practice their homosexual desires while heterosexual practice continually intervenes.

Rejection of homosexual identification within heterosexual practice becomes most poignant when Nic writes about a dream she has. Nic dreams that she is “defending Battle from her mom, using [Battle’s] braid as a weapon. How obvious can you get? Paging Dr. Freud” (92). While Nic writes her dream off as a clear-cut indication of wanting to engage in sex with Nic, her dream is more complicated than that. The dream comes out of Battle’s parents enforcing societal norms using a pink dress, clothing which is confining in itself. Nic fights against the mother whom one would assume would be more accepting of difference being an other in terms of patriarchy, not the father the absolute symbol of patriarchy. This suggests a double rejection of homosexual identification in heterosexual practice. The mother comes to represent Butler’s claim that “oppression works not merely through acts of overt prohibition, but covertly” as well (360). The use of a dream to show how stifling expectations are clearly speaks to Butler’s notion of oppression. Nic fights against the mother’s oppression with one of the strongest symbols of femininity, hair. Using hair as a weapon, not words or a weapon like the scissors used to cut her hair, assumes that one who is other can resist norms using the source of difference.

Only when heterosexual practice infringes upon homosexual identification can Nic clearly see the performance around her and the role she must play. When Ms. Fraser approaches Nic about her recent seclusion, she is now informed enough to realize, “The cast of characters is different that’s all. […] they’re not in the roles you’d think they’d have” (158). Nic comes to this realization only when she in an accepting space. When Nic tries to play a role that is not natural to her she performs terribly. Anne, who makes her heterosexuality clear during a bus trip, expects Nic to make assertions about a relationship she has never had, so Nic keeps “failing to act the way [Anne] expects” (180). Nic’s inability to perform her role appropriately with Battle also occurs when confronted with a heterosexual relationship as confusing as her potentially homosexual one. When preparing for the dance, Katrina—already established as the heterosexual norm—tries to push heterosexual norms upon Nic’s and Battle’s relationship: “the concept here is to play up the whole butch-femme thing, only it’ll be kind of reversed because of your hairstyles” (202). Katrina bases her standards for male/female on appearance. Despite Katrina rationalizing who is butch and who is femme, there is not true reversal of roles due to hair. Katrina could just as easily make Battle butch because of her short hair and Nic femme due to her longer hair. But these representations would not fit Katrina’s preconceived notions of feminine and masculine. As previously stated by Nic, Battle is beautiful, graceful, and coordinated. These characteristics, despite short hair, are enough to classify Battle as still feminine. But what about Nic makes her so butch? In this case, Nic being everything Battle is not automatically makes her the opposite. Katrina also interrupts homosexual identification within heterosexual practice when she feels Nic and Battle’s performance of lady-in-waiting and empress has gone too far. As a means to restore heterosexual norms, Katrina insert herself into the action the only way she can, by bringing them back to the world of reality. No longer wanting to prolong the action, Katrina finishes off Battle’s haircut with the clippers. Her action of interrupting Battle and Nic’s performance proves Katrina is a homophobe in a sense despite her claiming otherwise to Nic earlier. The roles that everyone play are a performance, and they play off of one another.

The ultimate realization of gender and sexual roles as performance comes at the close of summer camp. Right when Nic and Battle feel most comfortable with their gender roles and sexuality by having sex, the overall safe space of the summer camp begins to dissolve. In the midst of acknowledging stepping back into the heterosexual world, and therefore practice, Nic and Battle put their best performance forward as they take on the typical role in the relationship of the other: “How the hell are we supposed to […] leave this place and pretend that everything is fine when we have to go back to the stupid, pointless, idiot, moron world again? It’s not fair!” (211). For once Nic lives outside the realm of science and relies completely on emotion. Equally out of role is Battle who responds with rational ways of keeping their relationship going. The looming threat of heterosexual institution reveals that both girls can assume any role as needed within fantasy. As stated by Butler, “being ‘out’ always depends to some extent on being ‘in’” (Butler 356). Just as Battle and Nic learn to adopt roles to fit their purposes and find an accepting community, they seem unsure that they can be as successful in their practice in the real world.

While both couples do not set out to subvert heterosexual norms, they feel that just the exploration and possible implication of being lesbian is enough to evoke fear. The use of fantasy to open the lines of communication for true feelings inevitably spills over into reality. So while they learn that gender roles and sexuality are not as fluid as expected, they learn that fantasy and reality are. Because fantasy and reality are based off of already accepted heterosexual practice the difficulty of transferring experiences from fantasy to reality and back again becomes psychological. While the initial reaction to the couple’s coming out to those close to them is a bit adverse, they do find an accepting community, albeit a small one. So, fantasy seems to be more constrictive for expressing feelings than reality in the end. A testament to this statement is the fact that their relationship blossoms most when they do not think about roles and just focus on their love for one another. This realm of unconsciousness leads to them exploring sexuality on their terms. Once they realize what is happening, the action tends to stop as if repercussions flood their emotions. No amount of fantasy can undo the set backs that come out of the couple’s own rejection of acting on their true, unscripted emotions. Although staunch practicers of heterosexuality in the couple’s community fear that practicing homosexuals will demolish all that is good and wholesome in their ideal construction of community, the girls pose no threat. There is no mass conversion of their friends or family to homosexuality because the girls keep within heterosexual practice and repeat the roles and actions that have been mimicked so long no original—in Butler’s opinion—can be found.

Butler, Judith. “Imitation and Gender Insubordination.” Queer Cultures. Eds. Carlen and DiGrazia. Upper Saddle River, NJ; Pearson, 2004: 354-370. Print.

Ryan, Sara. Empress of the World. New York: Speak, 2001. Print.

Last Updated: February 20, 2012