Gender Identity and Sexuality

Gender identity and sexuality is strongly linked to Patsy and Tru's character development, and self-confidence as they grow and change throughout the novel. In the beginning, we learn that there is societal scorn for forms of sexuality that do not fit into the heteronormative standards of Jamaican society. Even at a young age, Patsy and Cicely knew to hide their sexual intimacy from their peers, and each continued to publicly date boys as a way to deflect attention from their own romance. Every woman in Jamaican society who does not have children and is not married is questioned, and thought to maybe be “funny.”

Sexuality is also a theme in the way that Patsy experiences her body, and in the ways that she expresses and releases her emotion. When she has sex with men, Patsy hides areas of her body, like the scar...