{"id":842,"date":"2024-10-08T02:26:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T02:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/?p=842"},"modified":"2025-08-20T01:00:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T01:00:53","slug":"yearning-for-the-feminine-in-the-boy-kings-of-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/?p=842","title":{"rendered":"Yearning for the Feminine in The Boy Kings of Texas\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the prologue of his memoir, The Boy Kings of Texas<\/em>, Domingo Martinez presents a song that, in his opinion, encapsulates the \u201cemotional DNA of the boarder male,\u201d explaining that this \u201cDNA\u201d was present not merely in his father and other male figures of his youth, but also in his grandmother\u2014and as the story unfolds, is evident in the character of his own mother as well (Martinez x). This \u201cmachismo\u201d presence, for which Martinez expresses emphatic distain throughout his story, appears to be linked not merely to a male social role, but to a seemingly higher state of honor and respectability to which women could also attain through similar behavior patterns. Remarkably, the female authority figures in his life pursue \u201cnarcissism, self-destruction, emotional blackmail, and a profound conviction that everyone else in the world is wrong,\u201d perhaps not to the same extent as his father, yet to a very significant extent nonetheless (x). His conclusion after a chapter dedicated to retelling events in his grandmother\u2019s life is \u201cDon\u2019t fuck with Mrs. Rubio, indeed\u201d (63). After being beaten by his mother for a minor school-boy incident, he ends the account by saying, \u201cI couldn\u2019t look at her again for ten years\u201d (39).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the female characters in his life embodying this brutal masculine behavior as well as the male, it is interesting to note the instances in which Martinez, in his own reactions and thoughts, resorts to feminine behavior and longings. After an uncomfortable conversation with his father regarding sexual desire, Martinez expresses \u201cI think I might try to turn gay to get as far away from my Dad as possible. It\u2019s the only plausible solution\u201d (12). While this statement presents the potential for a new and better life\u2014the antithesis of the masculine personality his father embodies\u2014it also seems to portray an internal longing for a genuinely feminine presence which he very apparently lacked throughout his youth. Similarly, he recounts several moments of self-proclaimed \u2018cowardice,\u2019 or feminine reactions which lead to his shame and humiliation within his family\u2019s machismo-lauding culture. Upon being targeted by a \u201cdominating rooster,\u201d Martinez writes, \u201cI turned and screamed in the most cowardly, girly way possible,\u201d resulting in his feeling \u201cthoroughly humiliated\u201d (63). When he failed to join a fight in defense of his father, he expresses sentiments of \u201cshame and anger\u2026verhuenza, <\/em>a besmirching of honor\u201d (104).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, these examples demonstrate within young Domingo, an impulse tending toward feminine characteristics and longing. While he is ostensibly battling the emotions of shame and embarrassment, along with the expectations of his family for him to \u2018be a man,\u2019 his actions and reactions reveal, more profoundly, a yearning for a genuinely feminine presence in his life, and the lessening of the machismo presence. It appears that he longs for a balance between the two, for the pendulum to swing and rest where it naturally should, giving femininity a prominent place in their family as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

January 28, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martinez, Domingo. The Boy Kings of Texas: A Memoir. <\/em>Lyons Press, Guilford, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the prologue of his memoir, The Boy Kings of Texas, Domingo Martinez presents a song that, in his opinion, encapsulates the \u201cemotional DNA of the boarder male,\u201d explaining that this \u201cDNA\u201d was present not merely in his father and other male figures of his youth, but also in his grandmother\u2014and as the story unfolds,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[919,923,665,921,920,922],"class_list":["post-842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critical-analyses","tag-domingo-martinez","tag-female-traits","tag-feminine","tag-machismo","tag-the-boy-kings-of-texas","tag-yearning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=842"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":925,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions\/925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}