Winter’s Bone is a novel following our young protagonist Ree as she fights to save her family from losing their house. Several instances in Winter’s Bone suggest that Ree might have romantic for women, particularly her best friend Gail, in the novel. First of all, Ree almost exclusively refers to Gail as “sweet pea” anytime they interact in the novel. This nickname, of course, does not automatically make Ree gay by default, but when paired with other moments in the novel takes on a more romantic light than in isolation. Ree describes an intimate moment they shared before Gail got married and had her child. It was her first kiss and a “practice” kiss between the two, so they’d know what to do when they were kissing a boy they’d like. This, juxtaposed with her unsatisfactory first experience kissing a boy, seems to imply that Ree had a much better time kissing a woman than she would a man: “There came three seasons of giggling and practice, puckering readily anytime they were alone, each being the man and the woman, each on top and bottom, pushing for it with grunts or receiving it with sighs. The first time Ree kissed a boy who was not a girl his lips were sent to hers, dry and unmoving…” (Woodrell 87). Placing these two experiences next to each other seemingly implies that Ree greatly preferred the first instance and was disappointed when she got the “real thing”. It’s also important to note that many straight women do not casually make out with their friends at any given opportunity.
Another
moment worth analyzing when discussing her sexuality is the daydream she had
after catching and eating the squirrels she hunted with Sonny and Harold. She’s
fed, happy, and resting on the couch when her mind starts to wander… to a naked
woman. The dream is more complex than that and does get interrupted by Uncle Teardrop,
but it does have many sapphic elements if that’s what you’re looking for: “The
lips kept smooching on her sweetly like she was yet and forever a child,
though, which felt wrong, stunting and stale, then in the measure of a single
heartbeat her dress fell open like shutters and she stood revealed, a woman,
and…” (Woodrell 110). The fascination with the female form is not explicitly
gay but, like many other moments describing Ree’s sexuality, seem very sapphic when
even considering the idea that she might be a lesbian or bisexual woman. Gay stories
are usually left vague on purpose for fears of losing a certain audience or opportunities
to be published. This story was published in 2006, a year which is much less
welcoming to LGBT people as 2021 is. There is no definite answer about Ree’s
sexuality, nor does there really need to be in a novel focused on much
different topics. It’s interesting to analyze the few clues Woodrell has given
us about Ree’s possible feelings for women and what other meanings these
passages might have if viewed in a different light.
One of the biggest things I pulled out of the novel while rereading was the sapphic subtext. The juxtaposition between the female and the male kiss was the big thing that set me off. I think the fragment “a boy who was not a girl” says a lot (Woodrell 87). Not only is the contrast between the two kisses obvious in the quote, the fact that he wasn’t just “a boy” to her means something. It was the fact that the main characterization about this boy is that he was not a girl. The author could have just said a boy. But this was specifically in Ree’s mind not a girl.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of putting the story in context. This was the same situation that Greer was in when he wrote “Less.” Even though the world was a little more accepting of sexuality in the mid-2000s, I do not think that the novel would have had the movie or publicity it had had Ree had an explicit sexuality. All of the sapphic undertones are there, but to someone uncomfortable with that it can be overlooked. I think that yes, this novel focuses on other, more important issues, but at the same time making her sexuality something that is kinda brushed aside or hinted at feels more taboo. Maybe that’s something that the author intended, seeing the location and time of the novel, but if he wanted to make her bisexual or a lesbian I feel as though he should have committed more.
I also noticed many of the sapphic details you pointed out. I also think that the relationship between Ree and Gail grows from more than either of their sexualities. They both lack examples of positive romantic relationships in their lives, and they also both lack strong positive relationships of any kind in their lives. They find comfort and support in each other that they cannot find in anyone else. I definitely think that these feelings grow into love, and Ree may experience more general attraction to women than to men, but I almost saw their love as one that happened despite their genders, not because of them. They love each other as people and as support systems, regardless of their respective genders, but they do not have the language to label this kind of love or their individual sexual orientations.
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