5th Post- "Sandman"

In the critical text, The Sand/wo/man: The Unstable Worlds of Gender in Neil Gaiman's Sandman Series, by Ally Brisbin and Paul Booth, the idea of sexuality and sexual orientation is mentioned throughout the entirety of the essay. Being a man is classified differently than being a woman because of societal roles and rules. Although we are taught to act a certain way due to our gender, according to Brisbane and Paul Booth, these social expectations should be reevaluated when categorizing the sexes. "The idea that reproductive organs should be the basic distinction among a race of creatures places undue value on these organs. Consequently, biological distinctions between male and female become instrumental in the classifications and delineation of difference (after all, why is it that sexuality and not, say, hair color that we culturally use to distinguish groups of people from each other?)" (24) There can be many other features in order to categorize men and women. Another topic that this essay touches is, sexual orientation. A friend of mine considers himself a homosexual, but truly believes that he was meant to be a woman. When reading this essay, I thought about many of the experiences he has shared with me. I was able to relate his life to what the authors were trying to prove. The writers offer their interpretation of the "Sandman" story. With this dual representation, Gaiman seems poised to offer both a critique of gender norms as well as a realization that our society is still a long way from universal acceptance." (Brisbane and Booth, 25) Gaiman is mentioning a huge controversial issue in his comic book story, and in my opinion, I agree with him. Many of the times these issues are avoided because of religious, economic, political, and social reasons. Due to personal experience, I believe that many ignore this issue because one side may not agree to the counterargument and vice versa. At the end of the day, we are all human beings in the big world and we shouldn't categorize each other as being completely different beings.