r own terms, comfortable and confident in her choices. She is a true feminist who believes in womans rights but has not dismissed men as partners. Alyssa does not need a man but did not deny herself happiness because Holden was a man.She knows the difference between love and sex, I dont love her, but Ill *censored* her. Alyssa chooses Holden because of their connection, not his sex. Her experiences helped her to be sure of what she wanted in a partner and relationship. She is not a stereotypical heterosexual or man-hating lesbian but she is moving and changing on a sexual continuum. As Gayle Rubin tells us in Thinking Sex, this spectrum of sexual identity is shaped by community norms and values but Alyssa made her choice of partner based on the whole being not merely on their sex or societys expectations.The sexual identities of the characters also show us the movies position on how women and men are evaluated differently based on sexual behavior. Throughout the movie we see the double standards that are present in our society and the different pressures and problems they cause. For example, Alyssa is involved in a sexual experience with two other guys. She is labeled a slut and people consider that they used her. The guys are considered studs that both scored with the same girl at once, as Peggy R. Sanday shows in Pulling Train. Boys will be boys, and the women who satisfy these sexual urges are included as passive actors in the enactment of a sexual discourse where the male, but not the female, sexual instinct is characterized as an insatiable biological instinct and psychological need. Women, for this reason, are taught to be shameful about their sexuality as we see in Audre Lordes Uses of the Erotic. Alyssa used experiences like this in order to discover her sexual identity. Throughout this journey, she was looked down upon by society yet she had no hear of judgment and lived her life according to her own desires. ...
