James Baldwin and Sexuality: Lieux de Mémoire and a Usable Past

In the first epigraph above, culled from James Baldwin’s essay “Here be Dragons,” Baldwin’s prophetic force comes through not only in his satirical description of an omitted American past, but also in his critical dismantling of a national mythology of masculinity. Baldwin provides more than just a trenchant criticism of the violence done in the name of the American ideal of masculinity, he analyzes the dichotomies that have had to be erected in order to preserve such a “flaccid” conception. His brief listing of the antithetical roles necessary to play out the drama of American masculinity captures the force and history of the ideal: cowboy ? Indian, good guys ? bad guys, punks ? studs, tough guys ? softies, butch ? faggot, and finally black ? white. Such formulas, for Baldwin, can only stifle growth; these limited positions and oppositional roles can only result in the continual infantilization of national character.