Patrick Keilty: Undergraduate, Literature at American University, Washington, DC. Minor in International Studies: Africa
Fay Weldon satirizes postmodernism and its fluidity of sexuality and gender in "End of the Line" to show how feminist methodology, an example of a deconstructionist approach, can be taken too far in trying to counteract empiricism, which at its center assumes a universal truth that silences differences. On a superficial level, Weldon illustrates exactly the goal of feminist methodology. However, her satire implies more: that the deconstructionist approach, when taken too far, confuses differences such as gender and sexuality to the point that they are relative and unconnected, leaving no common ground to speak about them or define them. In becoming relative, each difference acts as its own individual, but universal, truth; this is counterproductive to feminist methodology, which seeks to deconstruct universal truth. (In fact, even the convoluted nature of this discussion is a precise example of what Weldon tries to satirize: the discussions about the fluidity of gender and sexuality have become so boundlessly postmodern that they have no value.)
The satire Weldon expresses toward postmodernism in "End of the Line" is acutely focused on postmodernist notions of sexuality. In the following passage, she begins by poking fun at how postmodernism deconstructs social constructions through an absurd situation:
To be all jokes and intelligence — the world got worse and worse: the dawn of self-awareness came earlier and earlier: these days even infants sprung into the world fully post-modernized, gave you a glance before latching onto the nipple as if to say, "Look at me! I'm a baby, but I won't be for long." For both his children, heterosexual relationships had seemed too head-on, too upfront to be properly real; they preferred the inbuilt jokes of same sex love: the brushing of the breasts, penis to penis, like to like; the very lack of outcome of such intimate encounters appealed (35).
Weldon's absurd situation mocks the notion that in postmodernism even social constructs such as age are deconstructed, represented through the absurdity of a fully post-modernized infant. Weldon carries this satire through the passage and pokes fun at postmodern notions of same sex love ("inbuilt jokes of same sex love") and the lack of outcome, as pertains to postmodern and deconstructionist's lack of outcome.
Perhaps Weldon's most illuminating satire on the deconstructionist method appears when she stereotypes a gay relationship in "End of the Line" and, again carrying the parody through a passage, pokes fun at the fluidity of gender and sexuality. There are several stereotypes made by Weldon about Peter and Rick's relationship. First, their difference in age (eight years) again serves to show the deconstructionist method applied to age. Also, Weldon portrays Peter as a successful investment broker who is partnered with an antique shop owner. Morover, Rick supposedly has a "soft, sweet voice" (28), which is later confused with a girl's voice ("sounded suspiciously like a girl," 28). Rick's voice serves to confuse gender, thus implying its fluidity. Gender is further made fluid when Weldon writes of the gender confusion between Peter and his sister, Daphne: "Daphne and Peter had looked so similar when young; one had often been mistaken for the other. They had enjoyed that…. Peter would have his hair cut short: Daphne would take scissors and do the same. Peter would grow his: so would Daphne" (28).
Indeed, the relationship between the two siblings is made even more absurdly postmodern and deconstructionist when readers learn that both are gay. Simultaneously, Weldon shows the fluidity of sexuality when she reveals that the siblings have had various partners, of different genders, and perhaps even considered the same partners. This can be seen when Daphne asks Peter: "Was that your new man?" (28). "New" as opposed to the same implies that Peter's sexual desires are not limited to one partner, but fluid, just as when Peter says to Daphne: "I am not sufficiently convinced of your gender orientation to risk losing him to you" (28). Thus, Daphne's sexual desires are not limited to a single gender, and Peter's accusation implies that Daphne might find Peter's partner desirable. In this sense, she is not even limiting her sexual desire to those people in the world that are not already in a relationship with her brother! The very phrase "gender orientation" is overtly postmodern and deconstructionist, and is a rather exaggeratedly academic vein of discussing one's sexuality in informal conversation. Furthermore, Daphne replies, "these days I am only interested in hers" (28), revealing that in days past she was not, again speaking to her sexual fluidity. Indeed, Weldon's exaggeration of sexual fluidity and gender serves as a spoof for deconstructing differences to the extent that there are no boundaries for either.
While Weldon's satire of postmodernism and its fluidity of sexuality and gender may seem merely an informal aesthetic observation, one cannot assume that Weldon would take such efforts in satire merely for unintended purposes. Weldon is deliberately poking fun at postmodernism and its fluidity of sexuality and gender. In so far as the deconstructionist method has been used to counter universal truths that silence differences such as gender and sexuality, one can claim that Weldon shows how absurdly boundless the two are when deconstruction is taken too far. And while Weldon might not mean to take the next philosophical step that such differences are deconstructed to the point that they become relative and individual, universal truths, which in turn contradict the goal of deconstructing, one can deduce from Weldon the fallacy in taking deconstruction methods too far.
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