The Toughest Indian in the World is in the Closet
Sherman Alexie’s “The Toughest Indian in the World” tells a mysterious story about a Spokane Indian journalist on a quest to find his identity where he encounters his first homosexual experience with a hitch-hiking Lummi Indian male fighter. Through this story, Alexie is able to express the attitudes of sexuality in America’s society. Today, there is a sense of acceptance of overt sexuality, where one is able browse the television or Internet and discovers that all types of sexuality are all around us. From billboard ads, television commercials to the MTV Music awards, there is no denying that it is amongst us. Miley Cyrus performed a very erotic and sexual performance during the MTVVMA’s. Viewers, including celeb-colleague, were not too pleased with the performance and expressed how “slutty and dirty” Cyrus was portraying. However, it was still displayed on national television without being censored. Individually and as a whole, society is accepting of all forms of sexuality but there are limitations. When exceeding those limitations, society tends to answer with negative attitudes and relate back to better traditional ways. This regression causes individuals to close off or suppress their own expressions and deny their sexual identity. In “The Toughest Indian in the World”, the main character and narrator, a Spokane Indian journalist, mirrors the American society’s attitudes of sexuality that projects a constant struggle between being open minded and closed off about our own sexual identities and expression. The American norm still stands its ground through the society, that being heterosexual is the normal, sexual identity that people should develop. According to Gregory M. Herek, a psychology professor at the University of California at Davis, “ In society heterosexual masculinity is prized over homosexuality and feminity” (17), when being sexually prejudice. Alexie recreates this norm by creating a dominant heterosexual male character. In doing so, the
Cited: Alexie, Sherman. The Toughest Indian in the world. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000. Herek, Gregory M. "Beyond “homophobia”: Thinking about sexual prejudice and stigma in the twenty-first century." Sexuality Research & Social Policy 1.2 (2004): 6-24. Tatonetti, Lisa. "Sex and salmon: queer identities in Sherman Alexie 's The Toughest Indian in the World." Volume 35 Number 2 (Autumn 2007) (2007): 4.