Gender transformation and the issue of identity

1. In Monsieur D’Eon is a Woman Gary Kates argues that the Chevalier’s ability to
transform his identity emanated from many personal motivations and various
social/cultural conditions in Revolutionary France and Georgian England. Identify
and discuss D’Eon’s key personal motivations for his gender transformation and
analyze the cultural conditions that made his identity transformation possible.
2. How do we see issues of identity and identification playing out in popular
culture? How do you think popular culture understands and treats characters and
people who challenge traditional notions of identity?

Extra Credit Short Essay Response (5 pts)
In “This is Water,” David Foster Wallace discusses the Liberal Arts education. He told the
2005 graduating class of Kenyon College the following:
I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to
think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think
really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It
means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to
choose how you construct meaning from experience (Wallace, 2005).
In what ways has your liberal arts education thus far impacted how you think and
how you exercise control over the meaning you take from your experiences?

Answer Preview……………..

The portraying of gender transformation for D’Eon is that of a person who has something happening to him because of their childhood experiences or those of genetic defects. The transformation is not something that D’Eon brought upon himself as he matures into an adult but something that resulted because of his childhood or the genetic defects. It is through such an interpretation that D’Eon is depicted as a victim of an illness whose only fate is to suffer. The idea of D’Eon being an intellect who can be aware of their choices as they try to change the society is not the main driver of the transformation (Kates, 2001). However, D’Eon orchestrated his gender transformation and not a natural course as some people might think. During his time, D’Eon deeply admired the moral characters of women making him start wishing that he could live like them. The admiration of the moral character of women that began between the year 1766 and 1776 started getting to him after careful thought and………….

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