Who Will Cliff Date?
A Novel
by
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It is 1961. Cliff is in 4th grade. School principal Mr. Douglas asks all 4th graders to go to the school gymnasium to learn a new activity: square dancing. Boys will dance with girls. It is the beginning of what some people today (2025) call the heteronormative socialization process. It is how schools and other authorities teach boys to eventually date girls. It teaches boys not to dance with or date boys. Mr. Douglas instructs the class, “All the boys line up on that side of the room, all the girls on the other side. When I say ‘Go,’ every boy must run or walk across the room and pick out a girl to dance with.” Cliff asks Mr. Douglas, “How come the boys have to ask the girls? Do the girls ever have to ask the boys?” Mr. Douglas replies, “The male pursues the female. The male is the aggressor, the pursuer. The male takes the lead, makes the moves, and on a date, pays for him and her. He’s the provider. He’s the protector.” This furthers the 1961 hetero socialization process.
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About the Book
Funny, thought-provoking, historical novelette (short novel) about one Clifford Ryan, his older brother (Howard), and Cliff’s college roommate (Ralph). At 14 in 1967, Cliff has difficulty deciding if he (Cliff) is gay, straight, or bisexual. Howard’s problem with women is that Howard and thousands of other American men are drafted (forced) to fight in Vietnam in 1968 but American women are not. In college in 1970, Cliff and Ralph see The Boys in the Band, a movie about gay life that sways Cliff one way, Ralph the other way. In adulthood Cliff consults a psychiatrist and learns about another sexual orientation: sthenolagnia (pronounced stheno-lon´-ya), a Greek word meaning sexual excitement looking at or touching muscular body parts. Some people say sexual orientation isn’t a “choice” but Cliff and Ralph each must make a choice: date a male, or date a female. Their choice is influenced not only by The Boys in the Band but by people and events they see and hear from age 8 in 1961 to age 72 in 2025: JFK, RFK, LBJ, MLK Jr., Richard Nixon, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, the Vietnam War, The Graduate, The Godfather, Herman’s Hermits, women’s liberation, and gay liberation, all of whom or which are mentioned in this novelette. At times hilarious and heartwarming, at other times poignant and probing.
About the Author
David A. Robinson is a lawyer. He earned a B.A. in economics from George Washington University, M.S. in psychology from Purdue University Global, and J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis.