Gender and Sexuality Theme Analysis

In The Theory of Flight, oppressive political systems constantly impinge on people’s private identities, such as their gender and sexuality, while problems of gender and sexuality sometimes erupt into the political arena. The novel suggests that oppressive governments intrude on citizens’ lives in ways that are, as one character puts it, “too intimate”—more responsible governments would leave their citizens’ private lives and personal identities alone.

One main way that the novel shows oppressive politics interfering in characters’ private lives is through politically motivated sexual violence. The novel implies that the main character Genie may have contracted HIV because government sojas (soldiers) sexually assault her during a politically motivated massacre at the farm compound where her family lives. In the same vein, the oppressive government’s leader, The Man Himself, tries to coerce rich housewife Thandi into sex by telling her that she and her successful doctor husband Dingani are functionally his possessions. Though the former case is more violent than the latter, in both cases men representing the government force or threaten to force sex on female characters as a demonstration of their unchecked political power. It’s not only the political that interferes with the personal, however; sometimes, the personal erupts into and influences the political. For example, Eunice’s husband terrorizes her and limits her educational opportunities for years because he’s jealous of her past as a sex worker—until, finally, she retaliates by telling the government he’s a subversive. The government promptly throws him in prison, where he dies. Thus, the novel demonstrates both how politics can violently intrude on intimate matters like sexuality and how, in a politically oppressive society, people can end up using the political system to settle personal scores related to private matters like sexual histories and gender roles.