Rolling the R's

When thinking about the ways in which the “Judith Butler Reader” ties into the themes and happenings in Linmark’s, Rolling the R’s, sexuality is an obvious commonality that comes to mind. I think this is especially evident when examining Edgar and his persona as a homosexual. Edgar is very open about his sexual ways, flaunting it to his friends and even letting his friends like Vincente watch. The scene in which readers discover that Edgar lets Vincente watch he and the janitor while in the janitor closet reminds me of the idea that Butler poses to her readers about the concept of coming out of the closet and how by saying that you are coming out still signifies and proves that the closet still exists, except now you are kept out of it. When Edgar is with the Janitor he is acting outwardly with his homosexuality, yet he is keeping the sexual act itself within the closet. With that being said, is Edgar really out of the closet? This is something that is really troubling for me to answer, yet I find the question very intriguing.

This same sort of confusion about closets and coming out of the closet exists in Edgar’s relationship with the priest. When Edgar and the priest play and sleep with one another they are making a sexual confession to one another, yet typically confession within a church occurs within a closet like structure. Thus, I think it is kind of ironic that, through their acts of homosexuality, the priest and Edgar are coming out of the closet sexually and confessing their “wrongs” when a confession to a priest occurs in a closet. Once again I am wondering if Edgar is being portrayed as in or out of the closet or is Linmark demonstrating like Butler, that the closet, whether one is in or out of it will always exist as a barrier.