Connections: Blazing New Paths
Understanding that men and women may have different sexual orientations and that gender identification is not always known at birth are tenets of the revolutionary changes taking place in American culture. Lesbians and gays are long since out of the closet, and same-sex marriage is now accepted by a majority of Americans.
My generation didn’t think much about those who didn’t fit into heterosexual roles when I was growing up, and the word “transgender” didn’t come into use until I was middle-aged. Now, the Pew Research Center reports, some 70 percent of the generation known as millennials approved of same-sex marriage in a 2015 study.
East Hampton may have once been a backwater, but it proved to be a welcoming, nonjudgmental community as the 20th century moved along. People are surprised when I tell them that The Star was ahead of The New York Times in allowing women to use the honorific Ms. Others might be surprised to learn that The Star was at the forefront where same-sex marriage is concerned, too, having published a story about the marriage of two women at the Wainscott Chapel almost 20 years ago.
The portrayal of love between women on TV and in film may still raise eyebrows, but it has moved into the mainstream. Two recent articles in The New Yorker brought me up to date and, at the same time, described the trailblazing influence of two women I know and admire.
Marijane Meaker of Springs, who was the longtime revered leader of the Ashawagh Hall Writers Workshop until retiring recently, is one of them. The other is the poet Eileen Myles, a frequent visitor, who has relatives here and was a longtime friend of my late brother-in-law, David G. Rattray.
Ms. Meaker is a prolific and award-winning writer who has published under numerous pseudonyms depending on genre: Vin Packer for lesbian pulp and crime novels, M.E. Kerr for young adult novels — 30 of them — among others. She used the pen name Ann Aldrich in writing a best-selling book on lesbian life, “We Walk Alone.”
The Nov. 30 issue of The New Yorker carried an article in which she is featured. It was prompted by the film “Carol,” which is now opening in this country after having been seen at film festivals around the world, including our own. “Carol” is based on the novel “The Price of Salt” by the late Patricia Highsmith, and Ms. Meaker is the author of a memoir about their love affair, “Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950s.”
Ms. Myles, who in the last year or so has emerged as a national literary celebrity, has published some 20 books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. She may be best known for “Chelsea Girls,” a collection of short stories that has been called a cult classic and was reissued this year. Her work also includes plays, performance pieces, essays, and art and book reviews. She is mentioned repeatedly in the film “Grandma,” starring Lily Tomlin, whose character is said to be based on the perennially cool Ms. Myles.
The Dec. 14 article in The New Yorker is about Jill Soloway, who won a best director Emmy for the television series “Transparent.” According to the writer, Ariel Levy, the series is a “radical exploration of gender and sexuality, unlike anything that preceded it on television.” It was intriguing to learn that a character in the program’s second season was modeled on Ms. Myles, too. (And, because I don’t keep up with television, I was intrigued by Mr. Levy’s saying, “it marries the marginalized idea of gender transition to the familiar American concept of reinvention.”)
People toss around the term “role model” quite freely, but these two pioneers deserve our recognition for bravely blazing new paths and for providing younger generations with life lessons in living according to both your conscience and your heart.