Compulsory Heterosexuality in Nella Larson's, Passing

Nella Larson’s Passing illustrates how compulsory heterosexuality and the fear of societal consequences hinders the ability for female characters to fully embrace any nuance of queerness.

By Sofía Marin

Tessa Thompson as Irene Redfield in Rebecca Hall's, Passing / photo: Netflix

The concept of queerness and its many connotations have been constantly altered throughout history. More specifically, female queerness has been contested and invalidated more than male queerness. Due to the erasure of lesbian existence in different art forms and political movements, as well as the denial of clearly homoerotic relationships within the lives of authors and historical figures, being openly queer has never been an easy existence. Nella Larson’s Passing manages to depict queer female relationships despite being confined by her time’s literary and societal constraints. According to the Oxford Dictionary, during Passing’s time period, the connotative meaning of the word “queer” was derogative and intended to single out homosexuals. As Deborah E McDowell argues in her essay, despite constraints during Irene and Clare’s time, the existence of homoeroticism between both characters cannot be ignored. Building on Mcdowell, by analyzing Passing through the theories of Adrienne Rich’s “Compulsory Heterosexuality and the Lesbian Existence,” I will show how Rich’s theory of compulsory heterosexuality illuminates how both characters are compelled to commit to traditionally patriarchal roles to survive in a society that has not allowed space for them to exist authentically. Thus, Irene and Clare are emotionally, financially, and psychologically tied down to their spouses and straight identity because of compulsory heterosexuality, and their homoerotic desires never come to fruition. Ultimately, they are destined for a life of unfulfillment.

McDowell’s analysis helps establish Clare and Irene’s lesbian existence, which is imperative to fully understand the extent of how Clare and Irene’s lesbian relationship forms. McDowell begins her analysis of Passing by establishing the sexlessness of both Irene and Clare’s marriages. This allows Larsen to build a sense of homoeroticism between the two that gradually continues and culminates through Clare’s death. Moreover, McDowell connects how both race and sexuality play an important role in both how Clare and Irene navigate their lives and their perceptions of each other. Throughout the novel, Irene depicts herself as morally righteous and self-sacrificing: the “race woman” (McDowell 372). Clare, on the other hand, is Irene’s opposite. The physical attraction Irene feels for Clare, as seen through the sensual multi-paragraph descriptions of Clare from Irene, intersects with the racial envy she has from Clare’s ability to pass. McDowell’s final argument claims that it was necessary to push Clare out the window from Irene’s perspective, for her lesbian identity only lived through and from Clare. Clare’s death allows Irene to continue living in delusion, and preserve her safety and security. McDowell’s overarching argument analyzes how Irene chooses to live in a state of denial in which she both pretends to be morally superior and also negates her feelings for Clare. This is substantiated through McDowell’s analysis of erotic and concealment imagery.

Adrienne Rich’s theories of compulsory heterosexuality help to further McDowell’s analysis of Clare and Irene’s lesbian relationship. First, Rich prefaces her argument by declaring that the censorship of lesbian relationships in all aspects strengthens the societal institutions in place, including patriarchial motherhood, the nuclear family, and compulsory heterosexuality. Discouraged by society to openly express their sexuality through “discrimination in hiring and harassment in the street,” lesbians retreat into “sameness:” assimilation into society by hiding their sexuality and portraying themselves as heterosexual (Rich 228). Compulsory heterosexuality is the notion that from birth women are fed heterosexual relationship propaganda through film, literature, art, advertising, and other forms of media, which indoctrinate them into believing that heterosexuality is the sole sexuality, discouraging any lesbian existence. It dictates that male dominance is normal and necessary for women to survive. Moreover, the negative portrayal of female homosexuality impacts the way women platonically interact with each other, and, over time, compulsory heterosexuality coerces women into favoring male sexuality over their own. Male identification compels women to prioritize their male relationships. Thus, not only does compulsory heterosexuality, when viewed as a political institution, impact lesbians, it also impacts women in a more general sense.

Although it is safe to assume that Irene and Clare were raised in an environment that was highly influenced by compulsory heterosexuality, they approach the limitations imposed by compulsory heterosexuality in different ways. These influences manifest themselves in Irene and Clare’s lives in various ways, but probably the most indicative is how both characters instinctively ask each other about their married lives. Both assume that each is married and has a husband, and both begin their recollection of the past twelve years by stating the fact that they are married and have children. Moreover, when Irene recaps the lives of everyone else in their hometown, she begins by telling Clare of the “marriages and births” of the town (Larsen 15). Another way the indoctrination of compulsory heterosexuality is displayed is in the way Irene carefully analyzes Clare at first glance. The first glances that Clare and Irene exchange at the rooftop bar carries an air of flirtation and sensuality. Irene describes Clare as an “attractive-looking woman,” and pays close attention to her “wide mouth like a scarlet flower against the ivory of her skin” (Larsen 9). Despite her efforts to hide her “intense interest” in Clare, Irene admits that “all her efforts to ignore her, it, were futile” (10). Irene not only hints at the existence of her sexual attraction to Clare–“it”– she actively tries to repress it (10). On the other hand, Clare approaches Irene with little regard for her surrounding environment, establishing her dominance in their relationship. Moreover, throughout the rest of their interactions, Clare is always the one to initiate physical contact with Irene. Unlike Irene, who reiterates her need for “safety and security” by strictly adhering to the patriarchal institutions that limit her lesbian identity, Clare resides in a fluid space where, by taking initiative, she attempts to resist some limitations of compulsory heterosexuality.

This is not to say that Clare is by any means the pinnacle of resistance against compulsory heterosexuality. Rather, she can form a semblance of identity through nuanced behavior. As Rich explains, compulsory heterosexuality forces women into unsatisfactory relationships as a means to secure societal safety, though they enter these dynamics at a disadvantage without any social or economic power, which forms an imbalanced relationship with their husbands. In Clare’s case, she uses her ability to pass as white to enter white bourgeois society and acquire a rich white husband. To do so, she “stopped slipping over on to the south side” to visit Clare’s town and “slipped off to meet him [Jack] instead… on the day I turned eighteen, we went off and were married” (20). This male identification is a direct result of compulsory heterosexuality; women accept the male sex drive as uncontrollable and unexplainable, begin to act according to male sexuality, and neglect their female friendships because they see “interactions with women as a lesser form of relating on every level (Rich 237). Clare marries Jack as soon as it is legal to do so, granting him legal rights over her through the patriarchal institution of marriage, which further distances her from her repressed lesbian identity. Moreover, Clare was never able to explore an identity away from Jack because her adulthood began with him. Even before her legal adulthood began, Clare was seen “in company with… two men” and another time with “a man, unmistakable white, and evidently rich” (13). Whether Clare was with Jack or in the company of another man, more importantly, she spent her formative years not having had a chance to explore herself, or her sexuality, outside of the bounds of compulsory heterosexuality.

Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson as Irene and Clare in Rebecca Hall's Passing / photo: Netflix

Like Clare, Irene also enters an emotionally and sexually unfulfilling marriage to secure societal standing. When Clare asks Irene if she’s married, and Irene confirms, Clare’s first reaction is “you would be,” commenting on the fact that Irene’s personality, long before the audience is introduced to her, embodies the heterosexual woman. (15). Despite Clare and Irene talking about the past, Irene refrains from telling Irene any details about the specifics of her marriage, other than the fact that she has two kids. Over time, as male identification takes over, Irene begins to value Brian’s emotional well-being and thoughts on their marriage over her own. She takes on a maternal role when she speaks of him, expressing that “the bond and flesh between them was so strong,” akin to that between a mother and her child, and “she knew him as well as he knew himself, or better” (Larsen 40,41). One aspect of compulsory heterosexuality is the “maintenance of a mother-son relationship between women and men” where women provide nonjudgmental maternal nurturing and compassion for their husbands, even if they are abusers or harassers (Rich 237). Although Clare does not value her relationship with Jack as much as Irene does with Brian, she does allow Jack to call her “nig” and verbally degrade her (Larsen 28). Therefore, although Clare and Irene resist compulsory heterosexuality through nuanced actions (Clare more than Irene), compulsory heterosexuality seeps into other patriarchal institutions they are forced to participate in, and they are destined for personal and emotional unfulfillment.

Another institution that upholds the notion of compulsory heterosexuality is motherhood. Clare adopts a detached approach to motherhood, telling Irene that if it was not for Margery, she would leave Jack; “she’s all that holds me back” (75). In contrast, Irene adopts a seemingly selfless approach to motherhood, claiming that everything she had done to preserve her marriage had been “for him [Brian] and the boys” (40). In one conversation with Clare, Irene shames Clare when she expresses to Irene that “kids aren’t everything,” to which Irene responds “I am wrapped up in my boys and the running of my house. I can’t help it” (58). Although Irene uses her moral superiority about motherhood to shame Clare, the underlying cause of it is her need for a sense of safety and security–the necessity to keep her identity hidden to maintain her necessary role as a mother and a wife. Therefore, Irene’s children are used as a shield to keep the normalness of her life contained, and the queerness out. Both characters are compelled by compulsory heterosexuality to marry men who they initially hope will provide a fulfillment similar to that of the heterosexual relationships they grew up around. Nonetheless, forcibly participating in these patriarchal institutions does not invalidate their lesbian existence, as McDowell established. This double life–the reluctant agreement to these patriarchal institutions–is a fundamental part of the female experience (Rich 242). Clare and Irene ultimately participate in these institutions for survival, but in doing so repress their lesbian identities, and remain dissatisfied.

Ultimately, Clare’s death at the end of the novel accurately depicts the troubles of attempting to resist the patriarchal institutions in place. Her double life–both as a gay woman in a heterosexual relationship and as a black woman passing as white–is not sustainable. Society is not fond of those who exist in liminal spaces, and Clare’s entire character is defined by her nuanced resistance. If the death scene is interpreted as Irene pushing Clare out of the window, it depicts how Irene’s need for a sense of safety and security in society drives her to kill Clare since her lesbian identity exists through and from her. Irene pushing Clare is the pinnacle of her male identification and repression of her lesbian existence. If interpreted as Clare killing herself, it is the ultimate act of resistance. Rather than face the dire consequences and outcasting of societal norms she would experience, she ends her life before society gets the opportunity to. Regardless of the interpretation, the cuffs of compulsory heterosexuality lead to identity death. In the end, the consequences of compulsory heterosexuality and the institutions it influences limit Clare and Irene to an unfulfilling life where their true desires never flourish.