Misfits and Margins

Complimenting Bonnie Dow’s piece, “Ellen, Television, and the Politics of Gay and Lesbian Visibility” is Helene Shugart’s essay, “On Misfits and Margins:  Narrative, Resistance, and the Poster Child Politics of Rosie O’Donnell.”  In the former piece, Dow explores the coming-out stories of Ellen DeGeneres, as well as that of the fictional character, Ellen Morgan, portrayed by DeGeneres.  In the latter, Shugart analyzes the politics of the coming-out story of daytime celebrity, Rosie O’Donnell.

The first section of Shugart’s piece explores the differences between the public coming-out narratives of DeGeneres and O’Donnell as well as the resulting public reactions.  While DeGeneres’ revelation caused a controversy where people wrote editorials, boycotted Ellen and other Disney operations, and called in to radio and television shows, O’Donnell’s announcement went largely unnoticed.  Shugart notes that “Indeed, most curious is the profound lack of response to O’Donnell’s announcement” (p. 53). 

Another primary difference in the discourses surrounding DeGeneres and O’Donnell identified by Shugart is the politics surrounding their narratives.  DeGeneres seemed to come-out to “stay true” to herself, as the Dow article suggested.  However, O’Donnell’s coming-out was based on the issue of gay and lesbian adoption.  At the time O’Donnell came-out in March 2002, she had already been constructed in the public sphere as an adoptive mother, reinforcing the expected constructs of females as nurturers and mothers. 

Shugart then spends the next portion of her essay developing the discourses surrounding O’Donnell’s motherhood.  She explains that “O’Donnell fit into the American mainstream version of this ideological construct of motherhood—namely, suburban, middle-class, and largely white—very effectively” (p. 59).  In further explanation, Shugart continues to say that O’Donnell was a mother, represented as extremely nurturing, and embodied traits associated with traditional maternal femininity. 

With several examples to draw from, O’Donnell’s actions show that motherhood takes priority in her life.  From the nursery just off her office to the practice of cutting interviews off due to the needs of her child, O’Donnell made it clear that her career came second.  This reinforced the maternal discourses surrounding her in the media.

The positive tone of Shugart’s essay seems to come abrubtly to a halt as she analyzes the “narrative revision,” of O’Donnell, or in other words, of O’Donnell’s “coming out.”  It is this portion of the essay that I am most troubled by.  There are two main reasons for this.  I will first explain why I struggle with Shugart’s analysis, and then explain why I am troubled by the discourse itself.

Shugart explains that O’Donnell’s announcement about her sexuality is linked in public discourse to her background as an abused and troubled child.  This “troubled child” persona, as Shugart explores, is rationalized as the reason for O’Donnell’s child-like behavior, and thus rationalized as part of the reason O’Donnell identifies as a lesbian.  I feel that this link could have been explored and problematized in Shugart’s discourse instead of being mentioned, but not really explored.   To me, it is glaringly obvious that this discourse is problematic on many levels, and not just to O’Donnell, but for gays and lesbians everywhere.  Shugart does not seem to acknowledge this and that lack frustrated me. 

This link between abused and troubled child and adult lesbian is problematic because it continues to suggest that being lesbian, and by extension, being gay is a result of being “messed up” and suggests that homosexuality is a mental disorder.  Though homosexuality obviously differs from the heterosexual norm that does not mean that it is a mental illness.  This connection seems almost as absurd as suggesting that redheads have a detrimental health condition because their natural red hair differs from the neutral-shaded norm. 

Throughout the entire essay, Shugart explores the “poster-child” status of O’Donnell for gay and lesbian adoption.  One critical aspect of this discussion that seems to be missing, however, is the discussion of how the link between her troubled childhood and her sexuality could actually hurt, not help, this group of people that she seems to represent.  

These discourses of troubled childhood and child-like actions of O’Donnell seem to be in direct contrast to the discourse of nurturing motherhood that surrounded her.  Going back to the title of Shugart’s piece, “misfits and margins,” these seemingly competing discourses come together to put O’Donnell on the outskirts, or “margins” and label her as a “misfit.”  Her child-like actions do not seem to fit in the composed notion of the typical mother.  Announcing her homosexuality also put her on the margins of a heteronormative society.  However, the cliche “birds of a feather flock together” comes into play as Shugart seems to implicitly argue that the children raised by gay and lesbian parents are also misfits in some way.  Though she does not expand on this, one can only assume what requirements there would be to label a child as a “misfit” and therefore gay and lesbian parents are suitable parents. 

I think this hidden discourse in Shugart’s essay is one that needs to be explored more fully.  I do not think, at least, it is my hope, that Shugart would agree that gay and lesbian parents are only fit to adopt “misfit” children.  However, when she fails to explore this part of the narrative, I am left to wonder what she would agree with.  Having only some familiarity with O’Donnell myself, I do not know the circumstances surrounding the adoption of her son, and if her son would be categorized as a “misfit” in some way.  Shugart’s writing led me to assume that perhaps he had a physical or mental disability of some sort.  In doing some outside research, I cannot tell if this really is the case or not, but if it is not, I feel that Shugart should have explained and explored this avenue more fully. 

 In the perfect world, Shugart would have been able to explore these many different pieces of the narratives and discourses surrounding Rosie O’Donnell.  However, I also understand that there are real constraints of time, space, and text availability in writing a journal article.  And perhaps it is a strength in Shugart’s writing that this piece left me wanting more.  While I appreciated her comparison to Ellen DeGeneres, the development of the discourse surrounding O’Donnell’s motherhood, and the exploration of O’Donnell’s “coming out” narratives, I feel that the implications of her “poster child” status, as well as the concept of “misfits” needed to be explored more in Shugart’s writing. 

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