Conveniently Vague

Once again, I want to talk about how the Outsider status of many of our protagonists is influenced by the necessary absence of familial obligations/limitations. Tipping the Velvet is a special case - unlike some of our other protagonists, Nan is neither orphan nor runaway nor grieving daughter, but rather a girl given fairly free rein which she eventually uses to simply leave. Nothing terribly climactic, she just starts living her own life and moving from relationship to relationship, situation to situation. Perhaps the closest example of such easy, passive independence is Lolly Willowes, another feminist read, which got me wondering if that's one of the motivations. Is it a male construction to introduce conflict or tragedy in order to fulfill the orphan fantasy? Perhaps it's a conscious decision on Waters' part to downplay the domestic drama in order to focus on the more important issues of Nan's life. Coming out to your family is supposed to be one of the biggest steps in the path of realized homosexuality, but I think that for feminism's sake, Waters deliberately moves past that to make it about the more nuanced post-adolescent development period.