Peer Review for Robin Piach's summary on "Capitalism and Gay Identity"

For this assignment, the Ms. Piach chose essay “Capitalism and the Gay Identity” by John D’Emilio.   

In the summary, Ms. Piach begins by pointing out that the main argument of the author has is the classification of the “eternal homosexual”.    In the first paragraph, she broaches the concept that “D’Emilio proposes this challenge because he fears momentum from the 1970s successful political achievements will not carry into the future” because of a lack of gay history. Next, she makes an excellent point that “without knowing one’s history, how can provisions be made to insure a proper future?”

Later in the summary, the topic of family comparisons are made; specifically that of the 17^th century patriarchal unit to those of the post-capitalist 1920s era and how the introduction of goods and services produced out of the home essentially weakened the bond that once held families together as a cohesive, loving unit. 

When discussing the formation of communities and rise of gay culture surrounding World War II, Ms. Piach does a succinct wrap up of D’Emilios views on why those communities were able to come to fruition.  She points out “as a capitalistic society expanded, so did the availability of independence for self-discovery of identity, sexuality and social experiences.”  Ms. Piach further supports the direction of her summary by touching on the gay and women’s liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Overall, I feel that Ms. Piach does an excellent job of summing up D’Emilio’s essay.  Her thought process is cohesive and she makes good use of the text, quoting key passages from the article.  My only suggestion for improvement would be to go back and expand a bit more to add her own thoughts on what D’Emilio is presenting.  While it doesn’t have to be an entire new paragraph or two, a few sentences expanding on the summary a bit and adding her own translation of what D’Emilio is trying to convey would only add to an already well written summary.  It would allow the reader to see what Ms. Piach herself took away from D’Emilio’s article and offer more of a stance on whether she agreed with his views or not and why, which would in turn lend itself to an easier application.  

Source: Piach, Robin. “Summary”. ENGL121. Eastern Michigan University.30 Mar 2015.