In Mary L Gray's conclusion to Out in the Country, she summarizes the points that she makes throughout the book. But what I find particularly interesting are her arguments about how rural youth do visibility. Gray argues that "rural queer youth rework their disorientation from self, in places that prioritize familiarity through codes of sameness, discourage claims to difference, and have relatively few local 'others' to turn to for queer recognition" (3331-3347). So rather then claim an identity of "otherness", they cling to an identity of familiarity to garner as much local support as they can.
As I've made reference too many times, I grew up in a rural area, and I can't imagine what it would have been like for me to try to claim a lesbian identity during those years. I knew I was different, but I had no way of knowing what that difference was or how to label it. I wouldn't have even thought it was sexual at the time. Unlike many of the youth in Gray's text, I had no way of searching for "what was wrong with me" because of course I knew there had to be something!!! Gray's investigation of how media in general and new media in particular help rural youth work out their identity and find realness in being a rural LGBT youth is critical for helping researchers understand how these youth negotiate this terrain.
For me, it wasn't until I went away to college that things began to make sense to me. However, I was still in a very small town, with no family and only a few close friends, and certainly no internet. Life, for any rural youth in my day who questioned their sexuality or gender, were pretty much doomed for a life of misery until they got it figured out; if they did.
Gray's research is interesting, and there are some things to note in her Epilogue which I will get to in the next post.
As I've made reference too many times, I grew up in a rural area, and I can't imagine what it would have been like for me to try to claim a lesbian identity during those years. I knew I was different, but I had no way of knowing what that difference was or how to label it. I wouldn't have even thought it was sexual at the time. Unlike many of the youth in Gray's text, I had no way of searching for "what was wrong with me" because of course I knew there had to be something!!! Gray's investigation of how media in general and new media in particular help rural youth work out their identity and find realness in being a rural LGBT youth is critical for helping researchers understand how these youth negotiate this terrain.
For me, it wasn't until I went away to college that things began to make sense to me. However, I was still in a very small town, with no family and only a few close friends, and certainly no internet. Life, for any rural youth in my day who questioned their sexuality or gender, were pretty much doomed for a life of misery until they got it figured out; if they did.
Gray's research is interesting, and there are some things to note in her Epilogue which I will get to in the next post.
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