Cloud 9 Gender Quotes

When Gerry accuses Edward of acting like a wife, Edward is genuinely hurt by the comment. At the end of the day, he feels that being feminine is his "normal" way of being but no one else in the play seems to accept this, not even his gay lover.

It's interesting here for Edward to refer to Gerry as one of "you men," since Edward himself is biologically male. But that's just Churchill's point: Edward's biology has nothing to do with any sort of male or female behavior. As far as Churchill's concerned, there's no such thing as naturally "male" or "female" behavior. It all depends on the individual.

Poor Cathy wants to play with a group of young boys called "The Dead Hand Gang," but when she finally tries to, they give her a bloody nose and take her ice cream cone away. Worse yet, they tell her that she can't play because she's a girl. As Churchill shows us, sexism doesn't just go away because we're living in modern times. Kids can be especially cruel when it comes to making fun of people or hurting them for trying to act different than what is considered normal. As Churchill tries to show us, it might be better if we tried to live with no concept of normal at all—at least when it comes to gender.