Is Jane a code word for lesbian? Obviously the answer is yes.

About a year ago I was taking an English class that involved reading a story called “The Yellow Wallpaper.” For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story, it’s about a Victorian woman, Jane who has a nervous break down just after having a baby, which involves pealing off all of the yellow wallpaper from her walls. This is an early piece of feminist literature, as the breakdown she suffers occurs due to the way her husband locks her up in a single room. During the class discussion of this book feminism came up (obviously). And one man in the class (who had proved he was a misogynist previously) brought up a point: because Jane didn’t want to be married, that made her a lesbian. This is clearly ridiculous and the professor made this clear. The man in the class went on to (intelligently) point out that the character’s name is Jane and the movie character G.I. Jane was a lesbian, so Jane must equal lesbian. Very well thought out, I know.

I hadn’t really thought about this incident in some time (well, occasionally my best friend, who was also in the class, would bring it up for a laugh). But, earlier today, in my current British Literature class we were discussing the book Jane Eyre. Feminism came up again being that this book is probably the first feminist novel, and because feminism is a topic near and dear to my heart I chimed in. Through my comments it became clear that I am a feminist. Well, at least I thought I was until a woman in the class pointed out that I actually wasn’t. She told me that “there’s no way you’re a feminist. You wear too much make-up and too many dresses to be feminist.” I was completely blind sided by her comment. Not because I was offended, but because it was possibly the most foolish thing I’d ever heard. Before I had taken too long to reply to her, another man in the class did. Saying “what do clothes and make-up have to do with feminism?” —side note: the guy who said this is totally awesome and feminist! So, word up to David!—The original commenter pointed out that feminist are all hippy, lesbian, man haters, who would never wear dresses. I just laughed, because we were discussing Jane Eyre and Jane is (obviously) a lesbian name, and being that I’m a lesbian by default it made me happy.
Both David and I went on to explain to her that feminism had nothing to do with ways of dressing or sexual orientation (I’m not a lesbian, by the way, but if I where that wouldn’t mean I would automatically be a feminist, either), but is a set of principals and beliefs. Some how I don’t think she believed either of us.
Overall, I think both of these incidents are quite funny…