‘The female gays’ by Ali Smith

Ali Smith’s story ‘The female gays’ is one of my favorite types of stories, when a young person sees the sparkling glimmer of a future self just off the horizon of the blue-black lands of childhood. As a writer, reader, and psychologist I am endlessly fascinated by the interplay of the natural growth of self along the lines of genetic guidance with the conscious construction of self, especially at the time when that is most intense; when the young person makes a choice that binds or opposes them to the world as they know it. Smith captures that tension so supremely with just a few sharp sentences—moments like she said to herself, inside her head, I am seeing the world in a different way, one in which oil on my clothes just isn’t a problem to me. The dividing lines in her family are much bigger than how well kept clothes are, and Smith jumps us in time to confirm what was foreshadowed that her parents derision of homosexuality is a schism in values much too deep to reconcile. Despite that, the teenage girl is okay. She finds her way. Smith’s story is one of my favorite type of stories, when a young person grows into a sparkling person through force of will.

Five Dials