Historically, the suppression of particular people and nations has been seen by those in power as a necessity if they wish to secure their dominance. People have created submissive groups and divide themselves by claiming that one opinion is more important than others. Many binary relationships involve a more dominant group, and this also appears in the literature. Patriarchal discourse has created male dominance within literature, creating a male canon and leaving female writers on the periphery. Men wanted to maintain prejudice against women writers and attempted to achieve this by constructing a history that denied women writers. Gender at one point played such a crucial role in writing that women published their novels pseudonymously or even anonymously, in an attempt to receive unbiased review. Supporting this notion, in Veils of Irony Anna Udden states that in 18th-century literature "no critic ever discussed a work of literature without first making up his mind whether the writer was a man or a woman." Only then could he address its literary value…” (52). Patricia Waugh, author of Feminine Fictions: Revisiting the Postmodern, argues in her chapter “Postmodernism and Feminism: Where Have All the Women Gone?” (1989) (P.1-33), that women writers believe it is necessary to advocate the viability of their sense of identity if they are to achieve the consistency necessary to reverse their forced decentralization. She continues to explain that women writers feel like they are constantly struggling against the dominant postmodernist ideology—male writers who use formal experimentation to try to rid all traces of authoritarian conceptions of subjectivity and dominant discourses. In support of Gilbert and Gubar's quote, Jeanette Winterson, ...... middle of paper ...... she "...had no demons..." living in her house, leaving Jeanette physically without shelter. The idea also supports the idea that this novel is consistent with queer theory that "the problem with sexuality" ultimately lies not in itself but in dominant society. Jeanette faces a society of unacceptable people but she remains stubborn so as not to blame herself for her feelings for women. While working during Elsie's funeral, she has to serve dessert to the people who attended the funeral. Regardless of their disapproval of her, she finds the courage to face them even if she exposes herself to abuse. Fully understanding her disregard for societal norms, she remains confident in admitting that she does not conform and realizes that it is the people within society who view her sexuality as a problem, not her..