Glassworks
  • home
  • about
    • history
    • staff bios
    • community outreach
    • affiliations
    • contact
  • current issue
    • read Issue 25
    • letter from the editor
    • looking glass fall 2022
    • interview with Yuvi Zalkow
  • submit
    • submission guidelines
  • looking glass
    • through the looking glass
  • editorial content
    • book reviews
    • opinion
    • interviews
  • flash glass
    • flash glass 2023
    • flash glass 2022
    • flash glass 2021
    • flash glass 2020
    • flash glass 2019
    • flash glass 2018
    • flash glass 2017
    • flash glass 2016
    • flash glass 2015
  • media
    • art
    • audio
    • video
  • archive
    • award nominees
    • read and order back issues
  • Master of Arts in Writing program
    • about Writing Arts at Rowan University
    • application and requirements
  • newsletter
  • home
  • about
    • history
    • staff bios
    • community outreach
    • affiliations
    • contact
  • current issue
    • read Issue 25
    • letter from the editor
    • looking glass fall 2022
    • interview with Yuvi Zalkow
  • submit
    • submission guidelines
  • looking glass
    • through the looking glass
  • editorial content
    • book reviews
    • opinion
    • interviews
  • flash glass
    • flash glass 2023
    • flash glass 2022
    • flash glass 2021
    • flash glass 2020
    • flash glass 2019
    • flash glass 2018
    • flash glass 2017
    • flash glass 2016
    • flash glass 2015
  • media
    • art
    • audio
    • video
  • archive
    • award nominees
    • read and order back issues
  • Master of Arts in Writing program
    • about Writing Arts at Rowan University
    • application and requirements
  • newsletter
Glassworks

When Identity Changes Everything

3/2/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Review: When I Was Straight

Amanda Baldwin


When I Was Straight
Julie Marie Wade
Poetry
A Midsummer Night’s Press, pp. 48
Cost: $10.95


Julie Marie Wade’s chapbook When I Was Straight, a title that may lead a reader to expect poems about the transition between sexual identities, is actually largely heterosexually focused. Wade speaks openly about her experiences with men at the start of her sexual awakening, comparing her role as a woman to the ideal feminine condition society preaches, and in contrast to the feelings she had for other women in her life, even before she acted on them. Instead of appealing only to lesbians, the content of Wade’s poetry is extremely relatable for any woman who might not be entirely comfortable in the gender roles society has assigned to her or who is questioning her sexuality.
Feminism is not brought up explicitly, but it is an underlying thread that runs throughout the entire work, lending intensity to her emotions and the words she chooses to express herself. The old-fashioned way of looking at how a woman relates to a man still lingers, although women are doing their best to destroy the sad excuses for the lack of progress, as displayed in the helplessness shown in Wade’s poem “There Was a Man in the Moon”: “The woman did not know how to work/the lawnmower, & the man did not know/how to work the microwave.” This presentation of a woman’s skills in the home versus a man’s know-how may have had a seed of truth in it once upon a time, but now women are freer to learn everything they want about the world. Women are also allowed to pursue careers and hobbies rather than just getting married and having children. Wade’s poem “It Was a Shame” brings up what girls are still not taught—how to be a sexual woman, like Wade was while figuring out her sexuality: “It was a shame. It was a phase. / It was a secret. / I wanted every man I met. / I courted danger on the dance floor.” Even before she was thinking about engaging another young lady in bedroom activities, Wade’s perceived promiscuous nature was looked down upon by society in general as unseemly. Girls going through puberty and experiencing hormones and sexual attraction for the first time are understandably confused about what is happening to their bodies and minds during this time and why they want new things, and they must be taught the truth in order to stay healthy.
​

Julie Wade’s personal and private struggles are mainly caused by the doubt and uncertainty she feels under the eyes of her family as much as the judgment of a stranger finding out her truth. She is not able to be the perfect daughter and so her relationships with her family members deteriorate, as explored by the second half of the book, which consists of more individual reactions to her. In the poem "When My Mother Learns I am a Lesbian" her mother responds, “‘We raised you with God’s laws,’ she says. / ‘We told you to be pure.’ / ‘You raised me to love,’ I say. / ‘You told me to be happy.’” Wade’s honest descriptions and word choice make her feelings very easy to understand through her tone, and so the reader has no doubt at any time how Wade is reacting in turn to the support or disgust of the people in her life.

As an entire work, this is not a very cheerful chapbook in that she hides herself from everyone through the first half and after she comes out, the second half is full of disappointments. In “When My College Roommate Learns I am a Lesbian,” even her friend reacts badly: “What are you going to tell your boyfriend?/  Does he already know? / What am I going to tell my boyfriend?” The importance of the revelation is clearly skewed towards what the male opinion of the situation is going to be, which Wade uses to continually reinforce the irony of her sexuality. In “I Thought So Little of Sex,” before she comes out, “Thunder was sex. / Traffic was sex. / Neon was sex.” She is not having sex and so she cannot stop thinking about it and wanting it no matter what, but after she comes out and is presumably having sex with women, she is able to stabilize a little more inside as she simultaneously rocks the world of everyone who thought they knew her well.   


Wade’s ability to evaluate language for all of its possible meanings and contexts is fascinating, and the rest of her work is similarly thought-provoking and entertaining, regardless of the reader’s sexuality. Wade’s subject matter and manner of writing add gravity to her work and force the reader to take her seriously, along with her themes of feminism and of starting life over to be true to herself.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    March 2013
    December 2012


    Categories

    All
    2Leaf Press
    7.13 Books
    Able Muse Press
    Abuse
    Agate Publishing
    Agha Shahid Ali Prize
    Alfred A. Knopf
    Alternative Book Press
    A Midsummer Night's Press
    Andrews McMeel Publishing
    Animals
    Apocalypse Party
    Aqueous Books
    Art
    Ashland Creek Press
    Atticus Books
    Autumn House Press
    Bedazzled Ink Publishing
    Bellevue Literary Press
    Belonging
    Black Lawrence Press
    Book Review
    Bottom Dog Press
    Button Poetry
    Cake Train Press
    Catholic
    Chapbook
    Chronic Illness
    Coffee House Press
    Cold War
    Collection
    Coming Of Age
    Copper Canyon Press
    Creeping Lotus Press
    Divertir Publishing
    Drama
    Dystopian
    Dzanc Books
    Editorial
    Essay
    Essays
    Fairy Tales
    Family
    Fat Dog Books
    Father
    Feminism
    Fiction
    Finishing Line Press
    Flash
    Forest Avenue Press
    Furniture Press Books
    Future Tense Books
    Gender
    Geology
    Gospel
    Graywolf Press
    Hadley Rille Books
    Harbor Mountain Press
    Headmistress Press
    Historical Fiction
    Holocaust
    Home
    Howling Bird Press
    Humor
    Hybrid
    Identity
    Illness
    Immigration
    Jaded Ibis Press
    Journalism
    Kernpunkt Press
    Knut House Press
    Language
    Lanternfish Press
    LEFTOVER Books
    Lewis Hine
    LGBTQ
    Literature
    Mad Creek Books
    Meadow-Lark Books
    Memoir
    Mental Health
    #MeToo
    Microcosm Publishing
    Midwest
    Milkweed Editions
    Mixed Media
    Moonflower Books
    Motherhood
    Multi Genre
    Nature
    Nonfiction
    Novel
    Other Press
    Painting
    Perceval Press
    Poetry
    Poetry Prize
    Poetry Review
    Politics
    Press 53
    Prose Poetry
    Race
    Red Bird Chapbooks
    Red Hen Press
    Relationships
    Religion
    Scribner Books
    Sexuality
    Shechem Press
    Short Story
    Son
    Spirituality
    Split Lip Press
    Spoken Word
    Stories
    Suspense
    Symbolism
    Tarpaulin Sky Press
    Tolsun Books
    Torrey House Press
    Tragedy
    Translation
    Travel
    Two Dollar Radio
    University Of Utah Press
    Unnamed Press
    Unsolicited Press
    Violence
    Wings Press
    Winter Goose Publishing
    Women
    World War II
    Yale Younger Poets Prize

    RSS Feed


Picture

glassworks is a publication of
​Rowan University's Master of Arts in Writing
260 Victoria Street • Glassboro, New Jersey 08028 
glassworksmagazine@rowan.edu
​All Content on this Site (c) 2022 glassworks