Lieutenant Nun is about a woman who spent most of her adult life posing as a man after fleeing her convent shortly before she took her final vows. She ran away in 1600 and, from then on, dressed and acted as men did. She worked many different jobs for all kinds of people, joined up with the military, fought unbelievable battles, killed many men, including her own brother, and survived arrest, death sentences, battle wounds and long tedious journeys.
-Do you think the author was a transsexual or a lesbian? Why? Is it an important distinction?
Although some might argue that she might have been a lesbian, I would disagree and say that she was a transvestite. Both are very similar but she didn't just like women, she became a man. In situating herself as a man, she shows numerous characteristically male qualities, including bravado, competitiveness, and aggressiveness. She has a quick temper and reacts to insults with her sword. She composes next to nothing about her emotions; her memoir is completely without reflection. She did acted like a man and she lived her life with convincing others that she was a man, and no one ever knew until she said it towards the end of the book. Some women to prove that she in fact was a woman examined her. I personally don't think that is an important distinction; they're both pretty close to being the same thing. She was a woman who lived her life as a man and liked women but since she was still a woman, you could say she was a lesbian. Clearly she was a passing woman, but her sexuality due to her time and circumstances, defies easy categorization. Mutual attraction to other women who really think she is a man appears as a theme in her memoir with her usually in the role of a rescuer who initially enjoys, but later rejects, the advances of her female admirers.
-To what extent does the author think like a woman and to what extent does she appear to think like a man? How would this reflect on gender differences in colonial Latin America?
I think that even though she lived her life as a man she still thought like a women at times. I think the main one that stuck out to me that she thinks like a women is that she remained a virgin. In society now a days, a women who sleeps with a lot of men is looked down upon, whereas a man who sleeps with a lot of women is considered to be experienced. Regardless of the way that she for the most part relies on upon violence to take care of issues in her everyday life, she is extremely insightful, and commonly she gets by utilizing just her wits. When it comes to thinking like a man, the way she handles situations makes her out to be a manly. She fights so many people throughout the whole book and although that sounds like a stereotype that most men are strong and want to make others scared of them so that they don't think about messing with them ever again. I think it reflects on gender differences because it all comes down to stereotypes and what you think a man is and ho...
