The Realm Between Two Worlds

The Realm Between Two Worlds

By: Kelsea Reeves

“Epistemology of the Closet” by Eve Sedgwick focuses on the ideology that the metaphorical closet that is often associated with homosexuality extends beyond the basic premise that most believe it rests on. Many people in the modern world have the belief that the closet is a onetime ordeal. When you’re out, you’re out. When in fact this isn’t always the case. Sedgwick highlights this on page 68 of her work when she states that “For many gay people it (the closet) is still the fundamental feature of social life, and there can be few gay people. . . in whose lives the closet is still not a shaping presence.” This passage sets the theme for the rest of the work and is something that can very easily be related to once brought to your attention.

As a reader initially beginning the work, I assumed it would be simply about how one goes about “coming out” or what it was like prior to “coming out”. Upon reading it though, I realized that this metaphorical closet is a place that a homosexual may never be able to leave. At the most there will be one foot out of the door. But no matter how out and proud one is, they will have to live with the social norm that most people abide by which states that everyone is straight until absolutely proven gay., So every time a homosexual has to clarify their orientation to anyone else, they are once again exiting the closet.

Another big center of Sedgwick’s writing is that the metaphorical closet extends beyond homosexuality but in a very different way. “Vibrantly resonant as the image of the closet is for many oppressions, it is indicative for homophobia in a way it cannot be for other oppressions.” (75). The truth in this lies in the fact that when one is black, female, old, young, they don’t get the opportunity to hide what they are, like homosexuals may. So in a sense, while still experiencing prejudice, they are thrown out of the closet. Some may consider this the easier of the two. While it is known in scientific basis that any of the above things aren’t “choices” but something that one has no control over, it is still a widespread belief that one chooses to be homosexual. Thus making finding the courage to embrace your sexuality a frightening event.

Works Cited:

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. “Epistemology of the Closet.” Epistemology of the Closet. Berkley: U of California P, 1991. 67-90. Print.