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Will Smith
03/19/2015

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao depicts the gender binary of
masculine/feminine is harmful to everyone because it prevents true love,
while simultaneously giving us an inverted view of that binary that shows
women as the possessors of power, and the stronger sex and men as the
weak, powerless sex, thus provoking them to violence out of helplessness,
while the protagonist Oscar represents the middle, gender fluid path to
transcendence and love. This reading of the representation of male and
female sexuality in the book may come across as counterintuitive to on a
first reading. The boy who is named in the title, Oscar, is essentially unable
to present himself as having the traditional male sexuality of all of his male
counterparts. This in turn appears to mark Oscar as weak, and helpless
amidst the buffeting forces of life. He is constantly chastised for being
different in his sexuality, by both men and women, and he appears to be a
weak character, but in the end Oscar is the only character that seems to
attain what the end goal for both men and women is: true love. In the mean
time, although the so-called hypermasculine male characters in the book are
constantly having the appearance of praise heaped upon them for their
exploits, if we peel back the layers of the work we find that that men seem to
have roughly no power at all in this mode of sexuality where they are
constantly chasing women. To the contrary, though it appears that women

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are somehow the weak playthings of men, if one pays close attention to the
work, women are portrayed as the gender that possesses all of the power in
the gender binary. In the end, it is Oscars grasp of the feminine that
produces in him true courage, and enables him to find love even in the face
of violence and death. Thus a work that seems to reestablish the traditional
gender binary in terms of strong men who only have vapid sex, contrasted
with weak women who are mere sex objects, is actually a novel that forces
us to entirely question our intuitive interpretation of that binary as we are
used to having it presented to us.
Oscar is a representative of the murkiness of gender in a world that
otherwise tries to get us to buy into a strict gender binary. Oscar is not really
masculine, or feminine, but a combination of both. In his early childhood he
embodied more of a traditional masculinity. He showed sexualized behavior,
and his mothers friends remarked positively about such behavior saying,
look at that little macho (13-14). But Oscar lacks a violent nature to go
along with his sexual nature, and so later in life he finds himself in a more
feminine position, since violence and aggression as the stereotypical ways
for males to express their sexuality. By default this means that Oscar typifies
something feminine in his later years, although he retains his masculine
obsession with sex, which is proved by the novels constant reiteration of his
interest in women. However, it is remarked that Oscar had none of the Higher
Powers of your typical Dominican male, couldnt have pulled a girl if his life depended on it.
(42). It is also specifically mentioned in this passage of Oscars lack of masculine traits that he

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throws a ball like a girl (42). Reading these passages we see that while everyone around him is
neatly on one side of the gender binary, he is somewhere in between. He therefore plays the role
of showing us that the gender binary is not gospel truth, and is instead something malleable.
The traditional masculinity portrayed in the book that most of the male characters align
with makes them weak individuals. On the first pass it may seem like all of the male characters
in the book are strong, while Oscar is weak and pathetic. But in reality, Diaz wants us to see
these males, who fit neatly into a hypermasculine mode, i.e. are 100% male in the gender binary,
are the weakest people in the world. Yunior, the narrator, constantly portrays himself as one of
these masculine men. He says that he couldnt not get ass, even when I tried (308). He is so
obsessed with women that he puts the gravity of death in terms of not getting pussy when he is
convincing Oscar not to commit suicide by saying that, No-pussy is bad. But dead is no-pussy
times ten. (305). It is clear that Yunior is setup for us as the stereotypical male, who embodies
traditional masculine sexuality. He constantly chases women, he constantly sleeps with them, he
is aggressive, and thinks of himself as powerful. But what power does Yunior actually have? The
answer seems to be none at all. When he is confronted with Lola he actually feels something
more than shallow sexual urges, and wants something deeper with her. But he remarks that, at
college you're not supposed to care about anythingyou're just supposed to fuck aroundbut
believe it or not, I cared about Lola. (265) Despite this, Yunior is unable to overcome his
masculinity to commit to her, and thus ends up losing her love. He is deprived of the ability to
have a meaningful connection by his masculinity. He is forever a slave to womens bodies, but he
can never be an equal with them in his mind because of this. It is not until Oscars murder that
Yunior realizes the limitations of his masculine sexuality. Before the murder he is still so focused
on the physical, so transfixed by it, that he only remarks on the physical attributes of Lola when

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he visits Oscar and happens to see her, despite having deeper feelings about it. He says, the
sight of her leg muscles jiggling alone made the trip worth making as if to justify looking at her
at all when he failed to have a meaningful connection with her (305). What Yunior is truly
justifying though is his obsession with women that has made him powerless.
This powerlessness is not only a trait of Yunior, but of fully masculine sexuality in
general. The total masculinity of Yunior comes from a direct lineage to Trujillo as the archetype
of the masculine in the book. Most readers may be tempted to find Trujillo the most powerful
character in the entire book, since he literally is represented as something supernatural at times,
but, insofar as his masculinity is concerned, he is the weakest character in the entire book (339).
In fact, Trujillo is essentially painted as an addict. Diaz says of him that his sexual appetite was
boundless and that he had hundreds of spies whose entire job was to scour the provinces for his
next piece of ass (339). For a man supposedly so powerful there is a deep insecurity betrayed by
this rampant search for the next sexual encounter that is indicative only of an addict struggling to
find his next high. Indeed, Diaz compares the dependence of total masculinity on a new string of
sexual encounters literally to addicts when Yunior remarks after a particular feeling of depression
from not being able to be with Lola that, What I should have done was check myself into
Bootie-Rehab. But if you thought I was going to do that, then you dont know Dominican men.
(276). Paying close attention to the language used to talk about the masculine pursuit of sex in
the book reveals that total masculinity places one in a position of total weakness. No one would
argue that an alcoholic that cant keep himself from drinking the whole bottle of whiskey when
he has a sip, or the heroin junkie on the street constantly feeling sick until he gets his next hit is
the epitome of a strong person. In the same way then, we are forced to take the hyper masculine,

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or totally masculine men, who define the male side of the gender binary in Diaz as a depiction of
masculinity as the weaker sexuality, and males, because of it, as the weaker sex.
The violence used by the masculine men in the book does not indicate that they held any
power, or that men are the more powerful sex. Something must be said about the fact that the
masculine males in the book perpetrate much violence against women (and men) because it is
tempting to read this as them having the majority of power thanks to their aggressive sexuality.
This does not give them power though. As we have seen, these men resorted to violence because
they were not strong enough to fight with anything else; those who must resort to violence to
prove anything are not powerful, but are rather powerless, as they have no control over
themselves. Trujillo had Abelard captured and tortured both because he kept a woman from him,
and because of his strong words of criticism spoken about him (217; 237). The fact that Trujillo
had no other means of striking back against such a voice reveal him to be hopelessly weak and
pathetic, while Abelard, the only other male in the book who is not fully masculine, but rather
shares some femininity in his secretive, non-violent actions, held the true power in the situation.
Despite the violence that is often wrought upon them, women emerge as the stronger sex,
and femininity as the superior sexuality in a number of ways that is made obvious by Diaz. The
femininity, and female sexuality is the basis of literal, transformative power in the book. Beli is
shunned by society at first, but then as she develops from a girl into a woman and begins to
express her female sexuality she gains desirability, and her desirability was in its own way,
Power (156). She is able to transform herself from a social outcast into a position of being in
relationships, and a position in life she otherwise never could have attained. Diaz likens the
power of women to that of mythical powers like those of superheroes when she tells us that for
Beli to not use her female sexuality to her advantage would be like, asking the persecuted fat

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kid not to use his recently discovered mutant abilities. (156). But it goes even beyond the
wielding of external power, because Diaz tells us that in the gaining and utilization of femininity,
Hypata Belicia Cabral finally had power and a true sense of self. (157). A true sense of self
seems to be something deeply lacking the male characters in the book. The narrator himself
never seems to fully know who he himself is, and the entire book is, in some sense, his process
of self-discovery. This same sense of self is apparently inherent in femininity, as opposed to the
total loss of self that seems inherent in total masculinity. We are informed of the power of women
in other ways as well though. Lola talks about developing her physique in the Dominican
Republic, and realizing that I cant wear shorts anymore without causing traffic jams (122). So
while Trujillo was, in some abstract sense, supposed to have superpowers, the young girl, Lola,
had the actual power to cause traffic jams with her femininity, and her female sexuality. In a
discussion about Oscar and Lolas mothers breasts we are told after her face and her hair, her
chest is what she is most proud of. (91). This indicates that there is a genuine pride in female
sexuality that goes along with the recognition of its power. Finally, if all of this is still somehow
unconvincing, we can merely look at a simple relationship of Lolas where she lures in, and has
sex with one of her classmates fathers. A casual reading might suggest that the masculine man
held the power in this relationship, freely fucking this young girl, but Lola says that, He was
always pretty ashamed of himself after we fucked and that made me feel great. (322). This is a
testament to the ultimate triumph of female sexuality over male sexuality. Masculine men are
ashamed after their sexual encounters in the way that drug addicts are ashamed of their relapses,
while women gain power, and a sense of self from their sexual experiences.
Finally, returning to Oscar as the in between person, we see that feminized masculinity is
the only kind of masculinity that can be rewarding, thus challenging the traditional gender

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binary, which says that gender is not fluid, and simultaneously showing that femininity is the
strong of the two poles in terms of power. From the very beginning Oscar treats his nerdiness and
apparent lack of game in the same way that the women in the book treat their sexual attributes.
Yunior remarks of Oscar that, Dude wore his nerdiness like a Jedi wore his light saber. (44).
We have to pay careful attention to this, because Diaz is revealing here that Oscar had power in
his nerdiness. Not the traditional, vapid kind of pseudo-power that masculinity promised, but the
genuine kind of power that women in the book have. A light saber is a particularly apt metaphor,
because it was a tool of violence, but kept concealed, and, according to Star Wars lore, a weapon
used only for peacekeeping, while at the same time light sabers stood as external symbols of the
awesome, undefeatable inner power of the Jedi. Therefore Oscar nerdiness being like a light
saber is meant to indicate that he had a concealed power within him similar to the power inherent
in female sexuality. Oscar also had a far truer sense of self than any of the other male characters
(except perhaps Abelard), which directly becomes evident in the dialogue he has with Junior
where he says, Nothing else has any efficacy, I might as well be myself. But your yourself
sucks! It is, lamentably, all I have. (274). Oscars lament is only that he is not free to express his
true self because of the enforcement of the gender binary in his environment, but this passage
proves that he has a stronger sense of self then most of the other characters, and in accord with
previous passages, the only other sense of self any character is mentioned as having are the
women. Oscars final foray into successful sexuality is difficult to decipher in part because he
himself believes that Ybn, was the Higher Powers last-ditch attempt to put him back on the
proper path of Dominican male-itude. (438). However, this passage refers to Oscar finally being
able to enact his masculine desire for sex, not the masculine trait of violence. He pursues Ybn in
a distinctly feminine way, by engaging in the wait (438). Hardly any tactic could be more

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classically feminine in nature than the wait, and yet it works for Oscar. He finds transcendence in
his sexual experience (454). This indicates that he found it meaningful in the same way the
women in the book do, and the men do not. This is what produces in him the courage to go after
Ybn despite his certain death. Oscar already takes an incredible beating to within an inch of his
life, but still is willing to go back to pursue real love. We learn when Yunior tries to persuade
Oscar not to go back that Something had changed about him. He had gotten some power of his
own. (489). Thus Oscar goes to his death in courageous silence, much like the way Abelard did.
What is most important to note is the distinctly feminine way that Oscar obtained his love, the
way that Diaz describes him as attaining meaning from it, which was something tied to
femininity, and the fact that Oscar is ultimately the only one capable of true love with another
person. In the end then, Diaz forces us to see that the gender binary is false, and harmful while at
the same time providing us a fascinating view of an inverted perspective on it where women hold
all of the power, and men are defenseless in their wake. Note, the gender binary remains harmful
to both sexes when strictly enforced though, because the only response one can take when one
experiences powerlessness is violence; thus the gender binary forces men into violence, which
prevents love from being possible. The only way to find love, to create a better world, and have
peace is to recognize that we are all gender fluid individuals, and meet somewhere in the middle
as Oscar finally does, only then may we find our own transcendence.

Works Cited
Diaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Riverhead
Books, 2007.