Stag Dance by Torrey Peters

Sunday, Apr. 27, 2025--San Antonio

Stag Dance by Torrey Peters is a publication that includes a short novel and 3 short stories.  The title comes from the novela.  The writing is good and thought-provoking.  The first short story was quite provocative in concept.  Research lab work to aid pig farmers to make higher profits by introducing a bacteria that fights the body's natural inclination of developing sexual characteristics until a choice is made (in the case of pigs of giving the body estrogen so that all of the piglets become females) is released outside the lab causing a spreading contagion among humans that results in each person having to choose to be either male or female.  The novela takes place in an illegal logging camp in the middle of winter.  The stress of working under extreme cold conditions (with snow), working 12-hour-day-after-day to finish the job before spring arrives and government inspectors head to the countryside to catch illegal logging camps, and boredom from the routine of it with no option as an outlet for their frustrations results in the proposal of having a future stag dance.  The leader of the camp proposes that it be held "Winnipeg-style" which means that the dance will be more interesting by asking men who are willing to do so wear an upside-down triangle of brown fabric over their crotch for two weeks before the dance to indicate that they are willing to play the role of being a female.  The "fun" of this concept is that if the other men want to enjoy having dance partners (and maybe more), they must woo the men wearing triangular pussies--with favors, gifts, etc., up to the time of the dance.  The protagonist in the story is called Babe Bunyan.  He is huge and strong and quite unattractive.  But inside, he has desires to be courted by men, to have close encounters with men, and possibly even to have sex with one of them.  There's far more happening in the novela--jealousy conditions, a contract for the illegally felled wood with the state's wealthiest family, concerns about not being paid until the end of the contract, broken trusts between people in te camp, etc.  I found all four stories to be thought-provoking with each covering a topics that is beyond the realm of my life experiences.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.