Standards of Beauty Are Lies
The novel is a criticism of the shallow, vapid, and fickle standards of beauty touted especially by mainstream media and fashion and several characters serve as a platform for voicing this theme out. The Narrator comments on how contrived the entire modeling and entertainment industry is. She also remarks that feels shackled, rather than empowered by her beauty. Her beauty has been “commodified” and as a fashion model she was always told how to pose and how to look by photographers.
Identity Is Fluid
The idea that identity is a fluid, mutable concept rather than a fixed reality is a constantly recurring theme in the novel and there are several characters that exemplify this. Initially the Narrator is identified with her beauty as a model. When she begins to feel restrained by her beauty she mutilates herself, removing a major characteristic that helped defined her and now as a deformed, near-mute woman, she is now free to assume another name and persona. Brandy/Shane is defined by his biological gender, despite what he feels and his parents impose certain expectations on him. Upon being kicked out for being gay, he fakes his own death and undergoes gender reassignment surgery where he assumes the identity of Brandy and lives out his new life as a woman providing speech therapy.
Gender vs. Identity
Gender-identity clashes abound in the novel as several characters assert that one’s identity is and can be mutually exclusive of one’s gender. In the novel, identities associated with the biological gender of a character have some huge dissonance with their internal inclinations. As a man, Shane is a reserved, quiet person living only for his parents, keeping the fact that he is gay a carefully guarded secret. The minute that secret was discovered though and he kicked out the house as a result, he puts his male identity to “death” arranging to have some tell his parents that he has died of HIV-AIDS. He then goes through a series of operations to slowly transform himself into his idealized female image: that of his sister, Shanon. As a female she now assumes the larger-than-life “queen supreme” Brandy Alexander. Evelyn Cottrell later on in the novel is revealed to be a trans woman as well, assuming her new identity to escape a troubled past. The Rhea Sisters also refuse to stay tied down to their biologically linked identities and adopt flamboyant stage personas as part of their drag routine. When a broken Shane finds his way to the Rhea Sisters take their refusal to be “trapped” within their biological constraints to new heights and assume the role of literal and figurative “fairy godmothers” to Shane, funding his transitional operations to become “Brandy.”
